Plans have also been announced by the Department of Justice to pursue federal hate crimes against the four officers who killed George Floyd on May 25 last year.
White House Asked to Increase Crypto Regulation
A task force organized by the Institute for Security and Technology has urged the White House to tackle the rise in ransomware attacks and make it harder for cybercrimes to be committed.
Law enforcement agencies, cybersecurity experts, and governments came together to make a series of recommendations to the Biden administration that aim to disrupt the illegal activities of threat actors.
A report submitted by the task force contained 48 recommendations, including advice to step up the regulation of cryptocurrencies and to root out safe havens sheltering ransomware attackers from capture and prosecution.
The task force noted in the report that the volume of cyber-attacks has increased by four times year on year and that cybercrime is now a $350m criminal industry.
THE United States Justice Department has launched a civil investigation into the police force whose officers shot dead unarmed black woman Breonna Taylor last year, Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Monday.
The probe into Louisville police will also focus on the Louisville-Jefferson County government, he said, and will assess whether the police routinely use unreasonable force, including on protesters.
A similar review is under way of Minneapolis police, which was begun soon after former officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of the murder of unarmed black man George Floyd.
Mr Garland said the investigation would also look at whether Louisville police regularly engage in racially discriminatory practices or deny access to public services for people with disabilities.
But there s been growing criticism in recent years that the warrants are overused and abused.
Prosecutors would speak with community leaders, residents and police officials as part of the Louisville probe and release a public report, if a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conduct was discovered, Mr Garland said.
He noted the department had implemented some changes after a settlement with Ms Taylor s family and said the Justice Department s investigation would take those into account. It is clear that the public officials in Minneapolis and Louisville, including those in law enforcement, recognise the importance and urgency of our efforts, he said.
Do donors have too much influence over universities?
“I scarcely know anybody who works in the academy these days who isn’t concerned about donors’ influence,” Professor Denise Réaume told me resignedly. “It’s almost unheard of for someone to make a big money gift that is not targeted in some way. Nobody calls up a university and says, “Here’s $20 million, now go do good stuff with it”.
For this University of Toronto (UT) law professor as well as for Vincent Wong, a Toronto lawyer and former lecturer at the university’s law school, Exhibit A for undue donor influence is not the expected perk of naming of a building – as it is in so many American colleges and universities which have accepted gifts with strings attached from foundations such as Charles Koch Foundation.