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Russian hackers tried to destroy Ukraine’s power grid to aid the invasion

Targeted attack: According to Ukrainian government officials and Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET, Russian hackers targeted the Ukrainian power grid and tried to cause a power outage that would hit 2 million people. Hackers tried to destroy computers at a Ukrainian energy company using malware specially designed to destroy systems by wiping data and rendering it useless.

Russian support: Its effect remains unclear. Ukrainian officials said they blocked the attack, which they claimed was aimed at supporting Russian military operations in eastern Ukraine. If successful, the hack would have caused the largest cyber-induced power outage ever.

Successful infiltration: Russian hackers recently broke into a Ukrainian power company and temporarily shut down nine electrical substations, according to a Ukrainian government document shared with international partners in recent weeks. The document, which has not yet been made public, was shared with MIT Technology Review. Read the full story.

–Patrick Howell O’Neill

House turning algorithms are coming to your neighborhood

When Michael Maxson found his dream house in Clark County, Nevada, it belonged to a tech company, not a person who owned it. The US’s largest real estate listing site, Zillow, started buying homes in 2018 and predicted it could create “one-click nirvana” for real estate purchases. The big idea was to use the data to price the homes and investor money to buy them before they repair and sell them.

But when he went to look at the property, he discovered that a major water leak had eroded the walls and flooded the neighbors’ garden. Although he offered to take on the expensive repairs himself, Maxson discovered that the house had already been sold to another family at the price he had offered.

During that time, Zillow lost more than $420 million in quarterly irregular home purchases and unprofitable sales, leading analysts to question whether the entire tech-driven model is actually viable. For the rest of us, a bigger question remains: Does the arrival of Silicon Valley tech signal a better future for housing or an industry cut for fear? Read the full story.

–Matthew Ponsford

must read

I scoured the internet for today’s most entertaining/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 World accelerated more than half a billion known cases of covid
The actual number is likely to be much higher. (NYT $)
+ Cases rise again in the US. (NYT $)
+ Experts are split on whether the US should discontinue testing for travelers entering the country. (WP $)

2 Some Ukrainians are fighting Russia by fact-checking for Facebook
But there is still tremendous pressure to engage in physical combat. (WP $)
+ The country is experiencing a relentless campaign of cyber attacks. (WSJ $)+ Cybersecurity experts lobby for standards to prevent hacking threats. (Bloomberg $)+ Drones are used to collect evidence of war crimes. (WSJ $)
+ Russia’s tech workers are fleeing the country to seek employment elsewhere. (NYT $)

3 Jack Dorsey finds a loving audience among crypto believers
And potentially rewriting his legacy in the process. (Bloomberg $)
+ No messing around – Block’s prototype wallets look like rocks. (Anger)

4 It looks like SpaceX is winning the 21st century space race
The next wave of success is tied to the Starship reusable rocket. (Fast Company $)
+ Starlink briefly crashed over the weekend. (Record)

5 Tax sites getting greedy with your data
And in this process, they act reticent and shy about it. . (WP $)
+ This tax season will be particularly unpleasant for NFT investors. (Atlantic Ocean $)

6 Twitch viewers going crazy for chess
It was directed by the game’s leading bad boy, Hikaru Nakamura. (New Yorker $)
+ Online chess fans are raising money for Ukraine. (CBC)

7 Shanghai quarantine is bad news for global supply chains
Circuit limits of gadgets are expected to be the biggest loss. (FT $)

8 Tech firms lift stalls to lure their employees back to the office
Honestly, it would be hard to turn down a Lizzo special show. (NYT $)
+ But many tech workers will be working from home for the foreseeable time. (Information $)
+ Here are some handy tips for hybrid running haters. (WP $)

9 The malware detection industry is hooked on lawsuits
The biggest names in cybersecurity are dissatisfied with what they see as patent trolling. (Anger)

10 Tiny electric cars could challenge Bolivia’s muscle trucks
They’re affordable – but they face a tough battle to break into the mainstream. (rest of the world)

Word of the Day

“What’s happening globally and in the US is that people basically give up. They just want to go back to normal life.”

— WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the general public is exhausted by the covid restrictions. New York Times.