Technologies

Online prices for bogus vaccine cards double after Biden mandate

The fake cards are the latest in a series of COVID-related scams.

For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO and CDC websites.

Online fraudsters are jacking up the price of false COVID vaccine cards in the wake of a new federal mandate, the latest in a series of scams that seeks to exploit widespread concern and misinformation about the deadly pandemic.

The average cost of a fake «registered» US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine card doubled to $200 in the days following President Joe Biden’s Thursday announcement that federal employees and others would be required to get a COVID shot, according to new research from Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point Software Technologies.

Oded Vanunu, Check Point’s head of products vulnerabilities research, says that when the company started monitoring the issue in January, COVID-related black market activity was mainly found on darknet websites geared toward dealers. Those dealers would buy the fake documentation in bulk and resell it.

Since then, the activity has shifted to groups on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app. The groups offer anonymity, as well as bigger reach and scale. Over the past month, the number of sellers on Telegram has jumped tenfold to about 10,000.

The number of people subscribed to those groups has jumped, too. Before Biden’s announcement, some bigger groups had as many as 30,000 subscribers and followers. After the news, those numbers surged, with some groups peaking at roughly 300,000 members, a number the researchers hadn’t seen before.

Representatives of Telegram didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

«Our expectation is that the black market for fake coronavirus vaccination cards will continue to thrive as more policy requiring vaccination proof gets rolled out,» Vanunu said in a statement released with the report.

The spread of fake vaccine documentation online is part of a broader problem authorities have tried to combat. Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites have batted false information about the disease since the early days of the pandemic. The FBI has warned about vaccine scams and has disrupted online frauds that used the pandemic to raise false donations.

And the Federal Trade Commission has cautioned consumers to be on the lookout for scammers pretending to be government authorities in an effort to get into victims’ bank accounts.

The Biden administration’s plan is designed to address both the surging delta variant and the slowing pace of vaccinations in the US. It mandates vaccines for all federal employees and contractors who do business with the federal government, as well as health care workers at Medicare and Medicaid facilities.

Businesses with more than 100 employees must also require their workers to be vaccinated or to get tested weekly for infection. In total, the plan could reach up to 100 million people, roughly two-thirds of the US workforce.

The plan also encourages entertainment venues such as sports arenas and concert halls to require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for patrons to gain entry.

The market for fake documents is expanding globally. Check Point researchers found documents for sale in nine new countries that it didn’t spot a month ago, bringing the total number of countries spotted to 28.

In addition to the fake CDC vaccination cards, the researchers also saw counterfeit versions of UK National Health Service cards, vaccine certificates for numerous other countries, European Union digital certificates and COVID PCR test results.

Technologies

Spotify Launches ‘About the Song’ Beta to Reveal Stories Behind the Music

The stories are told on swipeable cards as you listen to the song.

Did you know Chappell Roan drew inspiration for her hit song Pink Pony Club from The Pink Cadillac, the name of a hot-pink strip club in her Missouri hometown? Or that Fountains of Wayne’s song Stacy’s Mom was inspired by a confessed crush a friend had on the late co-founder Adam Schlesinger’s grandmother?

If you’re a fan of knowing juicy little tidbits about popular songs, you might find more trivia in About the Song, a new feature from streaming giant Spotify that’s kind of like the old VH1 show Pop-Up Video.

About the Song is available in the US, UK, New Zealand and Australia, initially for Spotify Premium members only. It’s only on certain songs, but it will likely keep rolling out to more music. Music facts are sourced from a variety of websites and summarized by AI, and appear below the song’s lyrics when you’re playing a particular song.

«Music fans know the feeling: A song stops you in your tracks, and you immediately want to know more. What inspired it, and what’s the meaning behind it? We believe that understanding the craft and context behind a song can deepen your connection to the music you love,» Spotify wrote in a blog post.

While this version of the feature is new, it’s not the first time Spotify has featured fun facts about the music it plays. The streaming giant partnered with Genius a decade ago for Behind the Lyrics, which included themed playlists with factoids and trivia about each song. Spotify kept this up for a few years before canceling due to multiple controversies, including Paramore’s Hayley Williams blasting Genius for using inaccurate and outdated information.

Spotify soon started testing its Storyline feature, which featured fun facts about songs in a limited capacity for some users, but was never released as a central feature.

About the Song is the latest in a long string of announcements from Spotify, including a Page Match feature that lets you seamlessly switch to an audiobook from a physical book, and an AI tool that creates playlists for you. Spotify also recently announced that it’ll start selling physical books.

How to use About the Song

If you’re a Spotify Premium user, the feature should be available the next time you listen to music on the app.

Start listening to any supported song.
Scroll down past the lyrics preview box to the About the Song box.
Swipe left and right to see more facts about the song.

I tried this with a few tracks, and was pleased to learn that it doesn’t just work for the most recent hits. Spotify’s card for Metallica’s 1986 song Master of Puppets notes the song’s surge in popularity after its cameo in a 2022 episode of Stranger Things. The second card discusses the band’s album art for Master of Puppets and how it was conceptualized.

To see how far support for the feature really went, I looked up a few tracks from off the beaten path, like NoFX’s The Decline and Ice Nine Kills’ Thank God It’s Friday. Spotify supported every track I personally checked.

There does appear to be a limit to the depth of the fun facts, which makes sense since not every song has a complicated story. For those songs, Spotify defaults to trivia about the album that features the music or an AI summary of the lyrics and what they might mean.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 7, #502

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 7, No. 502.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition features a fun batch of categories. The purple one requires you to find hidden words inside some of the grid words, but they’re not too obscure. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Golden Gate.

Green group hint: It’s «Shotime!»

Blue group hint: Same first name.

Purple group hint: Tweak a team name.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Bay Area teams.

Green group: Associated with Shohei Ohtani.

Blue group: Coaching Mikes.

Purple group: MLB teams, with the last letter changed.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is Bay Area teams. The four answers are 49ers, Giants, Sharks and Valkyries.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with Shohei Ohtani. The four answers are Decoy, Dodgers, Japan and two-way.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is coaching Mikes. The four answers are Macdonald, McCarthy, Tomlin and Vrabel.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is MLB teams, with the last letter changed. The four answers are Angelo (Angels), Cuba (Cubs), redo (Reds) and twine (Twins).

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Feb. 7

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 7

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s Saturday, so it’s a long one, and a few of the clues are tricky. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.