[clock ticking]
[music playing]
CARL AZUZ: Hi, I'm Carl Azuz.
It is our last show of the season, our last show
of the year, and we're thankful you're
taking 10 minutes to watch it.
Let's jump right in.
There is a bug in popular computer software,
and if hackers are able to take advantage of it,
they could use that bug to break into computer systems
worldwide.
The problem was discovered in software known as Log4j.
It's a library that keeps track of error
messages in computer programs.
But Log4j has a security flaw, one
that could make it possible for hackers
to take control of servers.
And because the software is so widely
used throughout the technology industry,
attackers could go after its flaw in countless places.
This could affect some pretty big companies--
Amazon, Apple, Google, LinkedIn, Tesla, Twitter.
The game Minecraft has already been affected.
Its owner is Microsoft.
And it's had to put a patch, or fix, in place
to lock the hackers back out.
So now, other technology companies and businesses
are being told to figure out if they've been affected
by the software flaw, and if so, to quickly take
the steps necessary to fix it.
What makes things more complicated
is that computer engineers didn't know about it,
and therefore couldn't prepare for it, until news broke late
last week that hackers were using the flaw
to break into networks.
And in the first 72 hours after the flaw
became public, cybersecurity firm
Checkpoint said 800,000 attempts were
made to take advantage of it.
The timing wasn't good, either.
Checkpoint and the technology website CNET
say, with the holidays approaching,
information technology specialists
may be taking time off.
That could make it harder for companies to move
quickly to patch the flaw.
Before they started moving to do that,
hundreds of millions of devices might have
been vulnerable to the bug.
What can individual users do?
Not much.
According to CNET, people can just
make sure they update their devices,
software and applications whenever
they're prompted to do it.
But that's a security step computer users
are encouraged to take anyway.
- Most of us are walking a tightrope when it comes
to protecting ourselves from the hackers, living on the edge,
thinking, oh, I won't fall.
[music playing]
That's why it's so important to protect yourself.
Just like you do a safety check before you perform a big stunt,
you need to do a security check on your computer
to make sure you're running the latest version
of your operating system.
And you always have to do a backup of your most
important files, just in case.
But if all that security lets you down,
encrypt your files with FileVault or BitLocker.
And to be on solid ground, always run antivirus software.
I'm going from log to log, but you probably
feel like you're going from login
to login, password to password.
There are so many opportunities for the hackers
to get their hands on those.
So you should use two-step sign-in.
That way, every time you have to enter your password,
you also get a code sent to your phone.
So even if the hackers steal your password,
they won't get their hands on your smartphone.
CARL AZUZ: 10-second trivia.
What is the world's largest freshwater lake by volume?
Lake Superior, Lake Baikal, Lake Victoria, or Lake Michigan.
[music playing]
According to geology.com, Russia's Lake Baikal
has as much water as the five Great Lakes combined.
71% of the Earth's surface is covered by water,
but most of that's saltwater.
What's fresh only accounts for about 3%.
And most of that is trapped in the ice sheets of Antarctica.
Still, fresh water plays an incredibly important
role in life as we know it.
Though it's considered a renewable resource,
it has its limits.
Two of the biggest threats to fresh water
are pollution and overuse.
In an effort to preserve it by encouraging people
to use less of it, a biologist in South Africa
has utilized an unexpected tool--
his camera.
[music playing]
JEREMY SHELTON: Rivers really are the arteries of our planet.
They transport cool, clean water from the mountains
down across landscapes, and give us this critical resource
that we rely on so heavily for drinking,
for farming, for industry.
Without these arteries bringing us clean water,
we'll be in trouble.
- Jeremy Shelton is a biologist and photographer
at the Freshwater Research Center in South Africa.
A World Wildlife Fund report of freshwater fish
featured Shelton's images, which caught the attention
of actor and activist Leonardo DiCaprio,
who shared them on Instagram.
JEREMY SHELTON: It's all about inspiring
people to become more aware of the natural world around them.
Being able to take these snapshots,
bring them above the surface, share them
with people that have never had a chance to see this world
that I care so much about, and once that connection is forged,
to change the way they behave.
- More than half of all fish live
in freshwater environments, which are increasingly
under pressure from a variety of threats,
including climate change, pollution,
and invasive alien species.
JEREMY SHELTON: Behind me here, you
can see the Rondegat River, a beautiful mountain stream here
in the Cederberg mountains.
And this is actually the site of the first freshwater fish
restoration project here in South Africa, where
alien freshwater fishes were removed to create room
for indigenous species that were running
out of habitat in the wild.
A huge success and a big conservation
gain for freshwater ecosystems in South Africa.
The stability of our planet is intimately
linked to having healthy, functioning ecosystems,
whether it's the forests that take a lot of their carbon
dioxide out of our atmosphere or the freshwater ecosystems
that really feed those forests and allow them to grow.
It's all connected, and it's really in our best interests
to ensure that all of these different kinds of ecosystems
stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible.
[music playing]
- The situation is urgent.
In 2018, South Africa released a report
on biodiversity, which revealed that freshwater
fish were the most threatened species group in the country.
Shelton is determined to do all he can to save
these precious resources.
[music playing]
JEREMY SHELTON: I'm hoping that, through connecting
with these previously unseen worlds, that people will treat
them a little bit more gently, that people will be
a little bit more thoughtful about the way we live our lives
and about the way we interact with these natural ecosystems.
Whether it's taking a shorter shower
or accessing rainwater or brushing
our teeth for a minute less, every little bit
of water saving can help.
The conservation needs for freshwater life are extremely
high, and it's really reaching a tipping point
now where it's take action or we stand
to lose a lot of these species and the ecosystems
in which they evolved.
CARL AZUZ: The youngest woman ever
to fly solo around the world made the trip at age 30.
Zara Rutherford is 19.
And while her attempt hasn't been completed yet,
she is making progress.
Zara took off from Belgium in August.
She's been to Greenland, North America, South
America, and Russia since then.
She landed in Asia couple days ago,
and was on the island of Taiwan when we put this show together.
And while she'd originally hoped to be home by Christmas,
weather and passport delays slowed her down,
and different countries' COVID restrictions have kept her
from sightseeing on the ground.
But Zara says it's been an adventure.
And if it's smooth flying from here,
she's scheduled to be back home in Belgium in mid-January.
[music playing]
A lot of people look at their neighbors' Christmas lights
and think, pff, I could do better than that.
Well, here's a new challenge.
A family in New York state just broke their own world record
for having the most Christmas lights
on a residential property.
Their 2014 record was a little less than 602,000 lights.
This year, they went for an even higher energy bill,
with almost 687,000 lights.
It took them eight weeks and 8 miles of extension
cords to build.
And they don't only share the display with their community,
they share the donations they receive with firefighters
and local charities.
So it's filament for a good cause,
lit up like the North Star for Santa Claus,
because on the foggiest nights, with rain and snow present,
he can guide his sleigh by that incandescent display on Dasher,
Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, socket and circuit
and voltage resistance, fuses that diffuse
an ohm filled with light on a shameless plug,
bringing all a good night.
Santastic.
Our last shout-out of the year goes out
to Bellevue East High School.
It is in Bellevue, Nebraska.
We want to thank all of you for being the best part of CNN.
It is a blessing to serve such an extraordinary audience
as you guys.
We hope that if you celebrated, you had a happy Hanukkah.
We wish you a merry Christmas.
Happy holidays and happy new year.
We'll look forward to seeing you again in early January.
I'm Carl Azuz for CNN.
[music playing]