What I'm Reading 4/10/2020 - Some Supply Chain Management and a Bunch of Coronavirus Stuff

Seattle Times - World of Warcraft experienced a pandemic in 2005, which may help coronavirus researchers  -

The spread of Corrupted Blood, and the player’s behavioral changes to it, caught the attention of epidemiologist Nina Fefferman, who was a World of Warcraft player at the time of the incident. Fefferman reached out to her colleague Eric Lofgren. In 2007, the two published a paper that detailed their findings, including complex models of human behavior during a pandemic. Fefferman says the incident has helped inform her current research into predictive modeling around covid-19.

“What I do is study all the aspects of infectious disease outbreaks that help us prepare for pandemics,” said Fefferman, a mathematical biologist. “We really saw the full gamut of behaviors we see in the real world reflected in the player characters during Corrupted Blood.”

 NYTimes - Most New York Coronavirus Cases Came From Europe, Genomes Show -

New research indicates that the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case, and that travelers brought in the virus mainly from Europe, not Asia.

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The research revealed a previously hidden spread of the virus that might have been detected if aggressive testing programs had been put in place.

 Reuters - Taco Bell mandates employee temperature checks, contactless payments at U.S. outlets -

Taco Bell said on Thursday it was implementing temperature checks and contactless payments among other measures across U.S. restaurants over the next month, as it looks to address safety concerns among workers laboring through the coronavirus crisis.

The company said it would require all employees in U.S. restaurants to wear gloves and masks or coverings mandated by local authorities. 

 National Review - China Reclassifies Dogs from Livestock to Pets in Response to Coronavirus -

China’s agriculture ministry has reclassified dogs, which it previously deemed livestock, as pets in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“As far as dogs are concerned, along with the progress of human civilization and the public concern and love for animal protection, dogs have been ‘specialized’ to become companion animals, and internationally are not considered to be livestock, and they will not be regulated as livestock in China,” the Ministry of Agriculture said in guidelines published on Wednesday that are now open to public comment.

AFP - Top oil producers except Mexico agree to output cuts: OPEC -

Major oil producers except Mexico agreed to cut output in May and June by 10 million barrels per day, OPEC said Friday, after marathon talks to counter a collapse in prices.

The videoconference led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has been seen as the best chance of providing support to prices, which have been wallowing near two-decade lows due to the coronavirus pandemic and a price war between key players Saudi Arabia and Russia.

The agreement, which also reduces production by eight million bpd from July to December, depends on Mexico's consent for it to take effect, the oil cartel said after the meeting.

Tech Crunch - Corporations Not Happy Innovators Have 'Hacked' The Crappy U.S. Binding Arbitration System -

 AT&T, which helped kick this whole shift off with its sneaky bullshit mouse print, has been one of several corporations to hype binding arbitration as a more efficient alternative to class actions. Yet once folks actually began using the process thanks to these new services, companies like AT&T were caught flat footed:

"The companies were caught off guard. It took six months for many of the claims to move through arbitration. And some were still making their way through the system two years later. To Mr. Lidow, that seemed like a long time for two of the nation’s largest companies, with ample legal resources, that have vouched publicly for the efficiencies of arbitration over court." 

Dark Reading - No STEM, No Problem: How to Close the Security Workforce Gap -

The shortage of skilled information security workers persists — and continues to grow — for the simple reason that demand continues to exceed supply. But organizations will have a greater supply of talent than they realize if they can change their approach to uncovering it.

The search for cybersecurity professionals traditionally begins and ends by looking for candidates with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). But security operations centers (SOCs) and others looking to fill the infosec skills gap could broaden their search by looking for people with analytical, inquisitive minds and other talents that make for a good security analyst or other IT professional. They may well find the talent pool runs deeper than an HR-driven checklist can reveal.

Security Boulevard - Prime Contractor CMMC Rollout: Supporting Your Supply Chain -

 At the end of last year, the Department of Defense (DoD) Under Secretary for Defense Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord stated that cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the defense industrial base are most common six to seven levels down from prime defense contractors, hiding in their extensive supply chains.

“This is a U.S. economic security issue as well as a U.S. security issue,” Lord said. “When we look at cybersecurity standards, I believe it is absolutely critical to be crystal clear as to what expectations, measurements are, what the metrics are, and how we will basically audit against those.”

Across the Defense Industrial Base (DIB), organizations are rushing to translate their compliance from the NIST SP 800-171 cybersecurity controls to the new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification standard. These requirements include basic cyber hygiene at the low end, like levels 1 and 2, but prime contractor CMMC strategy, and the strategy for those who are higher up in the DoD supply chain in general, needs to focus on higher levels of certification against the CMMC framework to continue doing business with the Department of Defense.