Basel Area Cyber Criminal Arrested; Vitos Pizza For The Needy; Migros Lifts Alcohol Ban

News For 30 November 2021

A joint Ukrainian and Basel police task force took action at the end of last month to bring down a cyber criminal gang with ties to the Basel area.  Apparently, the gang had been targeting at least 1500 large scale global companies with Trojan and Phishing attacks to insert ransomware on corporate computer systems.  Once infected, the criminals would demand crypto currency payments to decrypt the locked and computer systems.  A man in Binningen was caught up in the sweep by law enforcement, who were acting on a request by the city of Paris public prosecutor's office.

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In the spirit of holiday giving, Vito Pizzeria is organizing a pizza donation drive.  Customers have the option to add the cost of a slice  all the way up to a family sized pie to their bill, and Vito will arrange for the donation to find its way to a person or family in need.  Anaï Becerra, project manager of the campaign for Vito Pizzeria explains that the goal is to reduce the exclusion of those without means from having a social life by giving them the chance to have a meal at a restaurant.

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Migros, the giant Swiss food retailing cooperative - and Switzerland's largest employer, has started the unthinkable: sales of alcohol at some of its branches.  Historically, alcohol sales at the ubiquitous food seller has been banned because of an edict by the founder Gottlieb Duttweiler, who demanded that all of the company cooperatives forego the sales of "unhealthy tobacco and alcohol".  Ironically, one of the company's largest subsidiaries, Denner, does sell both products, and seems to turn a tidy profit doing so.  Starting December 3, the Basel Migros cooperative and its branches will make final decisions on whether to proceed with plans to lift the ban, which would mean people could buy a "cold one" at a Migros starting in 2023.