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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

A series of ransomware attacks on the House of Representatives has led US Congress to ban members from using Yahoo Mail [bbc.com], according to a leaked email.

Both Yahoo Mail and Gmail are named in the 30 April email, published on Thursday by Gizmodo [gizmodo.com], saying the attacks had increased "in the past 48 hours".

Yahoo Mail will be blocked "until further notice" it adds.

Ransomware encrypts victims' files and demands a ransom be paid for unlocking.

Meanwhile, an unnamed House of Representatives employee has told Reuters devices connected to the internet via its wi-fi or ethernet cables have been barred from accessing appspot.com, the domain where Google hosts custom-built apps.

"We began blocking appspot.com on 3 May 3 in response to indicators that appspot.com was potentially still hosting a remote access Trojan named BLT that has been there since June 2015," the news agency was told.

Now if they would ban Blackberries Washington, D.C. would grind to a halt and the rest of the world could get on with their lives.

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