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US suspends Mexican cattle, horse imports over screwworm pest

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Sunday said she is suspending imports of live cattle, horses and bison through the southern U.S. border over the damaging pest New World screwworm, a measure that immediately drew opposition from Mexico.

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“I am announcing the suspension of live cattle, horse, &bison imports through U.S. southern border ports of entry effective immediately,” Rollins said. “The last time this devastating pest invaded America, it took 30 years for our cattle industry to recover. This cannot happen again.”

Her Mexican counterpart, Julio Berdegue, swiftly rebuked the action, but said he hoped the two countries could soon come to an agreement over the pest, known as NWS.

“We don’t agree with this measure,” he said in a post on social media, adding that it would be in place for 15 days.

The U.S. and Mexico last month reached an agreement on the handling of the damaging pest, which can infest livestock and wildlife and carry maggots that burrow into the skin of living animals, causing serious and often fatal damage.

The U.S. agriculture agency in a statement said the efforts so far were not sufficient, and acknowledged “an economic impact” on both countries due to the suspension.

“There has been unacceptable northward advancement of NWS and additional action must be taken to slow the northern progression of this deadly parasitic fly,” USDA said.

Ransomware group Lockbit appears to have been hacked

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The ransom-seeking cybercriminals behind the extortion group Lockbit appear to have suffered a breach of their own, according to a rogue post to one of the group’s websites and security analysts who follow the gang.

On Wednesday one of Lockbit’s darkweb sites was replaced with a message saying, “Don’t do crime CRIME IS BAD xoxo from Prague” and a link to an apparent cache of leaked data.

Reuters could not immediately verify the data, which appeared to capture chats between the hackers and their victims, among other things. But others who sifted through the material told Reuters it appeared authentic.

“It’s legit,” said Jon DiMaggio, the chief security strategist with the cybersecurity company Analyst1.

Christiaan Beek, senior director of threat analytics at cybersecurity firm Rapid7, agreed the leak “looks really authentic.” He said he was struck by how it showed Lockbit’s hackers hustling even for modest payouts from small businesses.

“They attack everyone,” he said.

Reuters could not immediately reach Lockbit or establish who had apparently leaked their data. Some darkweb sites associated with Lockbit appeared to be inoperative on Thursday, displaying a note saying they would be “working soon.”

Lockbit is one of the world’s most prolific cyber extortion gangs — DiMaggio once called it “the Walmart of ransomware groups” – and it has survived past disruptions. Last year British and U.S. officials worked with a coalition of international law enforcement agencies to seize some of the gang’s infrastructure. A few days later, the group defiantly announced it was back online, saying, “I cannot be stopped.”