>> woodruff: plus, scientists discover the disease that's killing starfish off the west coast. >> ifill: those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> at bae systems, our pride and dedication show in everything we do; from electronics systems to intelligence analysis and cyber- operations; from combat vehicles and weapons to the maintenance and modernization of ships, aircraft, and critical infrastructure. knowing our work makes a difference inspires us everyday. that's bae systems. that's inspired work. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build measurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the u.s. senate faced a moment of truth this evening, on the keystone xl pipeline. supporters needed 60 votes to advance the project. louisiana democrat mary landrieu pushed the issue. she's in a runoff next month with republican congressman bill cassidy, whose identical bill passed the house last week. minority leader mitch mcconnell led all 45 republicans in backing the senate version. >> republicans are committed to getting keystone approved. we want to see those jobs created as soon as possible. that's what the people want. so i urge a yes vote on the legislation to send congressman cassidy's keystone bill to the president and create more american jobs. >> woodruff: a dozen or so democrats joined landrieu in backing the bill, but most were opposed. california's barbara boxer said the real issue is the potential for pollution. >> this isn't about the building of a pipeline, it's what's going in it. the filthiest, dirtiest oil. but to stand here and say this is the absolute job producer, is phony. it is phony balogna. >> woodruff: the white house had issued veiled threats of a presidential veto. >> ifill: on the house side of the capitol, democrats re- elected california's nancy pelosi as minority leader. and maryland congressman steny hoyer was re-elected as minority whip. last week, house republicans voted to keep john boehner as speaker. >> woodruff: japan's leader today called for a snap election next month, putting his own job on the line. prime minister shinzo abe made the move one day after news that japan has fallen back into recession. some fault abe's economic policies, he responded by postponing a planned tax increase. abe also said he will resign if his party loses its majority in the election. >> ifill: president obama has ordered a review of how to respond to americans being taken hostage overseas. the white house confirmed the existence of the review, which it said began last summer, after news of the latest beheading of an american by "islamic state" militants. but spokesman josh earnest said the u.s will not change its policy of refusing to pay ransom. ;w:>> it's not that simple. we don't want to put other american citizens at even greater risk around the globe. and knowing that organizations can extract ransom from the united states. if they take a hostage only puts american citizens at a greater risk.cfé >> ifill: some relatives of beheading victims have urged the government to do more. the review may consider whether to let the families offer to pay ransoms themselves. >> woodruff: the national football league today suspended minnesota vikings star adrian peterson for the rest of the season, without pay. he's pleaded "no contest" to a texas misdemeanor charge of striking and injuring his son with a wooden switch. the running back has not played in a game in two months, and today's announcement means he can't be reinstated until april at the earliest. the players' union plans to appeal. >> ifill: the forest service will permit limited "fracking" to search for oil and gas in the largest national forest in the eastern u.s. the compromise plan was unveiled today. it allows the process formally known as "hydraulic fracturing" to be used in the "george washington national forest", which covers parts of virginia and west virginia. the plan also puts most of the forest off limits to oil and gas leases. the target air bags made by tacatta corporation that connet plode. they limited previous recalls to high humidity along the gulf coast but now there's an incident in north carolina.gpqoñ on wall street, stocks edged higher, partly due to an improved outlook for home building. the dow jones industrial average gained 40 points to close at 17,687. the nasdaq rose 31 points to close at 4,702. and the s-and-p 500 added ten, to finish at 2,051. >> woodruff: the u.s. capitol dome marked a milestone today in its $60 million facelift. workers have completed the task of wrapping the structure in 52 miles of scaffolding. that clears the way to repair 1,300 cracks in the cast-iron surface, and remove old paint. they'll also replace civil war- era windows and fix damaged cast-iron ornaments. the restoration is expected to be finished in time for the 2017 presidential inauguration. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour: a violent rampage on a jerusalem synagogue leaves several dead; ferguson, missouri readies for the grand jury's ruling in the police killing of michael brown; cutting off the islamic state group's massive funding sources; technologies that can help save and improve lives around the world; the inside story of organized cyber-crime; and, scientists discover what's killing starfish off the west coast. >> woodruff: it's deadliest attack in jerusalem since 2008. four people were killed at a synagogue today, before their palestinian attackers were shot dead. later, an israeli police officer died of his wounds. the attack built on growing violence in the region. >> woodruff: israeli soldiers and police swarmed to the synagogue in west jerusalem, moments after two palestinian men burst into morning prayers, shooting and hacking their victims with meat cleavers. witnesses told of terror, and blood. >> ( translated ): it was horrific. i can't imagine such attacks would occur to our community. >> woodruff: three of the dead were americans with dual israeli citizenship, including a rabbi from a renowned hassidic family. from washington, president obama condemned the killings. >> this is a tragedy for both nations, israel as well as the united states. and our hearts go out to the families who are obviously undergoing enormous grief right now. >> woodruff: within hours, thousands of israelis gathered for the victims' funerals. in east jerusalem, clashes erupted as israeli police fired tear gas and arrested relatives of the attackers. they turned out to be cousins, and members of the popular front for the liberation of palestine. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu ordered their homes demolished, as he vowed to respond with a "heavy hand" >> ( translated ): as a nation we will settle the score with every terrorist and their dispatchers, and we have proved there are some who want to uproot us from our state and capital. they will not succeed. we are in a battle over jerusalem our eternal capital. >> woodruff: netanyahu blamed palestinian president mahmoud abbas for inciting the violence. and in london, secretary of state john kerry also had stern words for the palestinians. >> they must begin to take serious steps to restrain any kind of incitement that comes from their language, from other people's language. >> woodruff: but palestinian radio described the attackers as martyrs. and in gaza, loudspeakers at mosques called out congratulations. president abbas criticized today's violence, but he put some of the blame on israeli actions. >> ( translated ): while we condemn this action, we also condemn the israeli aggression on the holy sites, like burning mosques and churches. all of these actions are not helping the palestinian and israeli interests to establish a palestinian state and live side by side in peace. >> woodruff: the militant group hamas called the attack a natural reaction to the death of a palestinian bus driver, found hanged in his bus on monday. many palestinians charged he was killed by jewish assailants. israeli police ruled it a suicide. tensions have been rising for weeks, with a series of other attacks on israelis. they've been fueled by a renewed dispute over jerusalem's holiest site, known to muslims as the noble sanctuary, and to jews as the temple mount. all of this follows last summer's israel-hamas war in gaza, and it's raised israeli concerns that a new palestinian uprising, or intifada, may be coming. >> woodruff: we turn now to two long time palestinian-israeli watchers. dennis ross was a u.s. diplomat and middle east envoy who served in the george h.w. bush, clinton and obama administrations. he's now a counselor at the washington institute for near east policy. and shibley telhami is the anwar sadat professor of peace and development at the university of maryland. he's also a senior fellow at the brookings institution, and author of the book "the world through arab eyes." we welcome you. the worst violence in jerusalem in six years. why has the situation deteriorated. >> we were talking about this just before the gaza war and i suggested we're maybe upon a third interdepartment. we're there already. and jerusalem is the most potent liberalizer not just among palestinians. what we see is -- what we need to understand is when you lose hope, when there's nothing there, both israel and palestinian side, hearts harden. how they react to civilian casualties in conflict. thex&fmñ first reaction is not empathy with the other, the first direction is they brought it upon themselves when they don't think this is going to happen and confreally the functs of hope. >> woodruff: dennis ross how do you see it. why doubt the situation gotten to this point? >> well i do think there's not just a loss of hope there's a disbelief on each side that peace is even a possible he a. i also think there's an ongoing demonization and it's simply unrealistic to assume you can have ongoing demonization and not have a consequence of it. i do think there's been more incitement of late and that incitement in the context what we saw today was an attack on a religious site where people were praying that they were attacked because the jews were reagan -- were praying but it highlights this demonization and steps have to be taken to stop it and diffuse the reality. >> woodruff: what do you mean by demonization, who is doing the demonization and who are they demonizing. >> what secretary kerry referred to as insightment on the palestinian side. there's no doubt that's taken place when you in amblpresidente condemned this action he gave a speech where he spoke about the possibility of a= holy war because of contamination, jewish contell nation of the sanctuary. that's not the sort of thing that's going to diffuse tennions. i would say when you paykwho arf contributes i think to a certain reality where this is somehow condoned even while you criticize the act. it isn't to say that the israelis haven't done things as well as it relates to those who want to go up and change the status quo on the temple mounts or with the arab sanctuary. >> woodruff: shibley telhami, president abbas is blaming the wrong people. >> when have you a horrific attack it ought to bethis is abe under any circumstances. put that aside for a minute. the questionn/e'ñ is what the palestinians are doing or the palestinian leaders are saying is really the reason for why these things happen. there's no connection whatsoever in my opinion. here's why. for one thing people aren't listening to him anymore. we don't under that incitement and i served on anti-incitement committee during the negotiations in 1990 on the american side trying to reduce incitement. incitementelf is a function of how much belief there is in the possibility of peace or conflict. people incite when they think conflict is coming. it's not a; function what people say. people, regardless what he says is right or wrong. this is not a function of it and people are carrying this out and don't even care about mohammed abbas whether it's ultra leftist. >> woodruff: he's saying it doesn't matter what people are saying it's a straight level. >> there's a context that exists. b, leaders contribute to that context. c, the fact is when there's a constant demonization when you watch palestinian or when you listen to palestinian radio, your report indicated that palestinian radio was lauding what had taken place. when there's that kind of context where it's perpetuated it creates a reality. yes there's a lot of anger out there and that anger is obviously contributing to this but the fact isñwho have to steg this is wrong. there's no justification for this kind of action, and you have to deal with what i think is a reality where the effort%wo demonize and dehumanize the other side makes it a lot more plausible than in fact these kind of actions take place and somehow accepted. >> woodruff: do you wantnñ to respond. >> first of all undoubtedly, put that aside that to think what that leader's going toization going to be the reason why people are going to do or not do the thing when they're facing settlement in jerusalem that they think are illegitimate and illegal. in comparison to what mohammed abbas will say or not say. it's not derived from what the palestinian leader is going to say it's derived from what they lived every single day. >> what the israelis are doing. >> what thervdoing. let's just remember one more thing, this is taking place in east jerusalempresident doesn'ty hardly any control over issues under israel control. >> woodruff: in just the little time we have left dennis ross, what is it going to take to stop this? is it intervention from the outside or are we spiraling into a third as we said a few minutes ago. >> i'm worried this is taking on a life of its own and i am worried as well that these are ease jerusalemites. there were bombings in jerusalem but not carried out by jerusalemites. there's a climate and frustration. what's required it's not so much external intervention although i do think what secretary kerry did last week meeting president abbas separately and seeing the prime minister of israel and king jordan and trying to ensure that actions that were being taken and what was being said about the actions that were being taken on the temple mount or on the noble sanctuary that you diffuse the issue and take steps to try to reduce the tensions. i think right now leaders on both sides have a responsibility to do everything they can to avoid what are provocative acts. to assume leaders can't have an impact is to ignore the role leaders have is to affect what the realities are. >> reporter: shibley telhami. >> i think we have it under way and a lot of people don't understand it because it doesn't looklike 2000. this is a hybrid. we have the militant islamists that might have extremists. it's going to combine unfortunate levi lens but also peaceful attempts by a lot of the mainstream but it's here and i don't think it's going to go away. >> woodruff: it's grim. shiblly telhami, dennis ross thank you. >> ifill: the st. louis suburb of ferguson, missouri, and the country, is awaiting word from a grand jury on whether it will indict the police officer who shot teenager michael brown. in anticipation of the decision, and the potential for violence, missouri governor jay nixon yesterday declared a state of emergency and activated the national guard. today, declaring the "status quo unacceptable," the governor announced the creation of a 16- member "ferguson commission" made up of local civic leaders and law enforcement officials, among them, education reform activist rich mcclure and the reverend starsky wilson, a local pastor. >> got heavy letting to do as a region. we've got to do it together. so i invite you to participate in the process but most of all i invite youuj to pray for it. our region must and can begin to reconcile and to heal. you don't have to see eye to eye to walk arm in arm. and we've had too much of you and them and not enough of we. and us. >> ifill: we look now at the legal and social questions raised in ferguson with danielle belton, a freelance journalist and editor at large for "clutch," an online magazine targeting young, black women. she is a native of st. louis. and susan mcgraugh, a law professor at st. louis university. she's also a practicing defense attorney. there seems to be a tipping point in the discussions about either police accountability or community accountability and the ferguson commission sounded like it was trying to bridge that gap. where is that tipping pointed landing today? >> it's a nice step. it's in conjunction with the whole state of emergency, though. what is very reactionary and a step back in some regards. it's the indictment of the community. they're concerned that people surrounding this protest is going to commit some kind of commotion. some%q)h sort of natural disast. the sounds like a good step in the direction. i wish i would have heard more of that from the governor than something that could call morehn already there. >> ifill: susan mcgraugh let's talk about that tipping point and also this extend the grand jury process has fed into it. >> i don't think there's any dx xb( jury process has made pee more anxious about what's going on in ferguson.a>it was hot whe, there's snow on the ground right now. and the fact that this is a different grand jury process, than the one that prosecutor mccullough normally uses really as to the sense of frustration. >> ifill: explain it to those of us who pay attention intermittently, this grand jury process is not something we see in a pure crime drama not like law and order someone gets accused and indicted and there's a trial. this has been almost a trial in advance of trial. >> it really almost has been with a couple notable exceptions. you know, this is the only time this specific grand jury procedure has been used by prosecutor mccullough and it's different than the one we woulds not arrested before his case went to grand jury. that is something that normally happens in the course of someone's involvement in the criminal justice system and i think that's really heightened people's sense of frustration. additionally the jury's going to see all the evidence. normally in grand jury the prosecutor will only show one side or the state side of the evidence. in this case the grand jury is going to heark all of the evidence. >> ifill: danielle belton something went out nationally about this. is there some legitimate concern that as activists come from around the country and fly into ferguson to st. louis and go to ferguson preparing to protest or protest around the country, that there is reason to be concerned. >> i can see that there might be a few bad actors. there might be a few people who want to take advantage of the situation. and get out of their own anger towards law enforcement and power structures within our society. but the vast majority of protesters and activists have come together around ferguson have come around it peacefully, organize the peacefully. they helped young people who were introduced here in st. louis and was never involved in political movement. they have guided them and nurtured them. >> ifill: it takes just a come of knuckle heads to throw all of that into a should owe. >> there are a couple knuckle heads and colleges that riot and messed up their town. >> ifill: new hampshire. >> yes. so there's nor emergency over college students. >> ifill: susan5ñ mcgraugh, coming back after you,ruway afte fact, after the grand jury has convened and reach a conclusion they said they would make everything available for everyone to z is that promise enough to head off some of the impatience. >> i don't think it's going to be. i think what people would have liked to have seen is that a different process like a preliminary hearing being used. that would have allowed an open courtroom, presentation of evidence. it would allowed people to have seen the witnesses as they appeared in front of a judge. i think unfortunately that showing people what the evidence was after decision's been made isn't going to be satisfying. >> ifill: danielle belton, is this about the prospect about the indictment of daniel wilson or something larger and the michael brown situation has become a proxy for that. >> it's something larger and if michael brown wasn't the first black man, he's not the first black man in american to get shot in the back. this is a larger referendum how people are already upset about these issues. there's a lack of transparenty in society when it comes to police accountability. they used this as a catapult tos that have been learned. as we pointed out it's been 101 days since this has happened and played out in different directions. are there any lessons you have learned or you have seen people take from this process? >>thought they were. like i grew up in st. louis. asthe first young black man to t shot by police in st. louis who was unarmed. i remember how i felt as a woman of color. there's so many young people, all i could think about is getting out of st. louis and they are trying to change the city for the better. that's the biggest lesson for me. >> ifill: how about you susan mcgraugh are there lessons you have learned that you picked up from either in the community or in the legal process that informs what we will see happens in the next few days. >> i think what's been most surprising is how little people( know about how the justice works and the grand jury system and how charges are brought. but i've been really encouraged by the amount of young leaders that i've met in this movement, by people's passion for finding justice in the criminal justice system. by their willingness to learn and their willingness to become involved and there could be some really powerful systemic change. >> we'll be watching obviously closely the next several days to see what kind of change we actually see. susan mcgraugh, danielle belton, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now, stopping the rapid rise of the islamic state group by addressing a main engine driving the militants: money, a lot of it. chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner explains. against is islamic administrate has focused on theg $nws.-ledmilitary campaign of as and helping local forces opposing it. equally important part of u.s. strategy has been waged beyond the scenes targeting the pocketbook.3t but it's tough. islamic militant groups like al qaeda relied largely on donations from wealthy sympathizers in the gulf and elsewhere. but i.s. largely pays its own way through criminal activities in the territories it controls in iraq and syria. late last month, the u.s. treasury department reported the group was earning $1 million a day selling oil from seized fields and refineries, $20 million so far in 2014 in ransom payments for captured westerners, millions more in extortion and theft from local populations and businesses, and millions more looting and selling antiquities the point man trying to curtail all these sources of revenue is david cohen, the treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. i spoke to him earlier today. undersecretary cohen thank you for having us. >> good toes be hear. >> reporter: how does isil stock up against other terrorist groups we have ever faced. >> today the best funded terrorist organization we have confronted outside of state sponsored terrorists organizations. >> warner: have you been able to make yet a real significant dent in its ability to finance itself enough that you see an impact on its ability to operate. >> one of the ways that isil has raised funds is through the sale of stolen oil. and i think we have seen over the past several months some reduction in isil's ability to sell oil on the black market. >> warner: can you give me an example. >> our stment over the summer was isil was earning something on the order of something around a million dollars a day from these black market oil sales. today in the aftermath matt of some of the air strikesi4 that have been taken as well as some of the efforts that have been undertaken to restrict isil's ability to use the smuggling networks, i estimate isil is now earning something on the order of a couple million dollars a week. it's still an enormous amount of money but it is movement in the right direction. >> warner: is there fixed assets that have been taken over,taken over in iraq and syr. why can't you just bomb them out completely. >> i'm not a military targetter so i don't -- >> warner: you have enough on your plate. >> i have enough on my plate without selecting specific targets to hit. but it is absolutely the case we're working very closely with the department of defense and in thinking about going after some of their oil resources. >> warner: you said in a speak that a lucky are big this stolen oil and then smuggling it out through turkey. now the kurdish government is the allies. they are doing that. >> the point i was making is that the oil smuggling that works that isil has now taken over are long stand is smuggling networks existed formubefore ise into iraq. what we're working on is to cut off those avenues and the kurdish regional government is2k and is working tobr cut off the sales. >> warner: are we seeing success. >> i think we're seeing some success there. >> warner: what does it sivment isil spend the money on. >> they offer 300, 400 million a year just in the fees for their fighters. they're also trying to portray themselves as if they were a state. and trying to the deliver social services. that is also very expensive. we just compare what the iraq governments had budgeted for social services in the area where isil is currently operating. it was well over $2 billion for this year. even the effort to try and do that is one that will outstrip the resources that isil hasyeua. >> can we do this all to a self contained network. don't you at some point have to have a.in the financial system where you then can sanction the institutions that do businessjo with them. >> if they want to purchase whatever it is, whether it's weaponry or other material to try to continue to hold this territory, having access to the financial system is is enormously important to them and we do have the ability. &véming with private financialio isolate isil and to prevent them from being able to access the international financial system. and that's one way to undermine their financial strength. >> warner: what0@a&a8ápaymentsg issue. most western european allow ores to get their citizen back. and the u.s. refuse and you said it's a major source of revenue for is. is there any evidence they've stopped playing that game. >> we have been doing everything in our power to try and free the american who are held hostage and to work with others to have their hostages free short of paying random. not only fuels additional hostage-taking, because it rewards the hostage taking by paying randoms but it also fuels these terrorist organizations so they can conduct other terrorist-like activity. so we are working wd our partners around the world to translate what is now an accepted form which is that ransom payments should not be made tinto more of a reality. >> warner: are you making any at all. >> i think we're making some progress onhis. isil received $20 million in random this year, someone's paying those ransoms. >> warner: your job before this one was to formulate the economic sanctions against iran to try to force them to the operating table. what is tougher. >> iran presented a different set of challenges than isil. they are both hard but i think we're making progress on both of them. >> warner: undersecretary david cohen, thank you. >> thank you. >> ifill: when it comes to global health, much attention is now focused on ebola. but more routine diseases take a toll on the world's poorest people every day. in seattle, there's a not-for- profit group trying to develop new tools and medicines to combat them. the newshour's cat wise has the story. another report in our "breakthroughs" series, which explores inventions and innovation, both here and abroad. >> so all we need is salt, water, and electricity to make this product work. >> reporter: with just those three ingredients, this small device produces concentrated chlorine, a powerful disinfectant. the man behind the product, glenn austin, says it took years to develop, but now there is a greater need for chlorine in parts of west africa because of the ebola outbreak, and this device may one day soon be helping to meet that demand. >> we are really thinking about how quickly we can move, because there's a sense of urgency here. chlorine is probably the most widely accepted universal disinfectant. its great, you can treat water with it, you can treat surfaces with it, and that is the preferred application in disease and infection control. >> reporter: the electro- chlorinator is just one of the many products turned out by a global health nonprofit in seattle, washington called path. for more than 30 years, the organization has been developing innovative medical devices, drugs, vaccines, and diagnostic equipment for use in low-income countries. >> the fact that some people have access to lifesaving devices and other people don't is simply wrong. its unfair and its correctable. >> reporter: steve davis is president and ceo of path. he says one of the organization's most successful products could come in handy in fighting the ebola outbreak if a vaccine using a live virus,that has to be kept cold, is developed. it's a tiny heat sensing sticker that tells health workers if a vaccine is no longer effective. its been used on five billion vaccine vials over the past two decades. >> it turns out in food, in frozen chicken, they have something on the package to show that if it had been thawed, and unthawed. so we took that idea and now by having a vaccine vial monitor, this little dot, we can actually tell whether the vaccine has got too hot, and therefore shouldn't be used. and that's been really critical, saved millions of lives. >> reporter: path got its start in the 1970s bringing reproductive health technology to rural china. today, the organization has 1,200 employees-- a mix of scientists, engineers, doctors, lawyers, business people, and health policy experts. they work in more than 70 countries on issues such as clean water and sanitation, maternal and newborn health and neglected diseases. they often collaborate with public and private sector partners on the development, funding and distribution of products. >> so welcome, this is path's product development shop. >> reporter: mike eisenstein manages the workshop where many of paths health tools have emerged after months, sometimes years, of research, development, testing and old fashioned tinkering. >> were looking for solutions that are sustainable, that are easy to use, they're low cost, very sturdy, very affordable, so we try to mimic all the settings where they'll be used. how do the technologies we develop react to dust, to high humidity, to temperature, things like that. >> reporter: eisenstein says the end-users-- often women and children-- are what drive the inventions and designs. he showed us how that played out during the development of a new version of a decades old female contraceptive. >> so the challenge in this particular case was, diaphragms come in many different sizes, and in developing countries its especially hard you know, finding a doctor, then getting sized for a specific diaphragm. what we did was we designed a diaphragm with the idea of it fits most of the female population. >> reporter: another workshop project is the uniject, aimed at low-skilled health workers administering shots. steve brooke was one of the product developers. >> it's unique in that its completely self-contained, the dose of vaccine or the life saving medicine is already filled in this bubble. so the healthcare worker doesn't have to measure the dose, take the time to find a different syringe. once you've made the injection its designed such that you cannot refill it because reuse of syringes is a significant problem in developing countries. >> reporter: down the hall from the workshop is path's lab, where scientist manjari lal is developing methods to freeze-dry certain vaccines and drugs. the resulting tablets, which would eliminate the need for refrigeration, and skilled health workers to administer shots or i.v.'s, could be a game changer according to lal. >> we need to conduct some clinical trials to really demonstrate if this technology has value. but yes, i mean this is easy, packaging wise, administration wise, andrage. especially in places like sub- saharan africa or africa in general where temperatures run so high that if we had a product which is heat stable, i mean it can indeed save a lot of lives. >> reporter: saving and improving lives through the use of innovation was a big theme at a recent path event honoring supporters and donors. during his speech, ceo steve davis spoke about the need for better health systems in the world's poorest countries. >> health inequity is generating all sorts of challenges to economic development and its generating a lot of political instability and we have to address that. and certainly the situation in west africa with ebola is demonstrating that very, very much. >> reporter: but while davis says the ebola outbreak deserves attention and better resources from the international community, he worries that other, long standing, global health problems will be overshadowed. >> we have to keep in mind that far, far more children and women and families will suffer from and die from other diseases far more than ebola. and that's because malaria and diarrhea and pneumonia and other things are killing far more people in that region. a lot of the work to support and help all those other conditions is come to almost a complete stop. >> reporter: over the coming months, davis says path will continue to stay engaged in the ebola outbreak, while launching a major new effort to eliminate malaria, a disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people around the world each year. cat wise for the pbs newshour in seattle. >> ifill: online, see path c.e.o. steve davis's idea for another medical "breakthrough." that video is on the rundown. >> woodruff: major u.s. government agencies have been the target of cyber-attacks of late. the state department is the latest. during the past week, officials had to temporarily shut down an unclassified email system after a suspected hacking. in recent months, the white house, the postal service and the national weather service all have been targeted. meanwhile, as the holiday season approaches, retailers and the business world are on the lookout for breaches. a new book breaks down the pervasiveness of what's happening. jeffrey brown has our conversation. >> brown: hardly a week goes by anymore without a report of some major cyber breach whether it's targeting the government or all of us. it's generated another world of crime some of it voidized and even chaotic and parts extremely well organized. journalist brian krebs has uncovered some major breaches including the one on target that compromised the credit card data of tens of millions of people. he writes about all of this on his blog krebs on security and now in his new book spasm nation. and welcome to you. >> thank you. >> brown: you are into a world of cyberrer crime that few of us ever see. what does it look like. >> it's;absolutely. but it's not as dark as you might imagine. if you're somebody who doesn't know their way around, people showing you the way th1take a c. >> brown: you're smiling as you say that. there's a lot of give and take, interplay, let me help you out. is that how you develop your sources in your work. >> absolutely, yes. >> brown: you're dealing with the bad guys here. who are they. do you see them changing, whether in terms of who they are or the level of sophistication. >> sure. i think it's a very basic level a lot of these guys don't see themselves as bad guys. so some of the individuals that i profiled in the book spasm nation, these guys generally see themselves as a provider of service or a product that people want. and the stuff they advertise say in spasm for the most part, they view this as something that maybe violates some laws, some western laws about things but at the end of the day, somebody's going to buy their product and they're going to make some money off it. >> brown: so they're providing a service which would be a service that somebody nefarious might see the services providing are my data for example, your data. >> it's really interesting to look at the dichotomy of spasm. wherever you are in the world your experience of spasm is probably going to be radically different. so for instance one of the individuals i profile in this book is responsible for running one of the most sophisticated crime machines ever built. and we're talking about hundreds of thousands of computers that are affected with malicious software to infect machines with malicious software. you're an american you get spasm from cutwell there's a very good chance it's going to contain software to turn your system into a spasm box. if you're russian and you get e-mail from spasm e-mail from cutwell, there's almost no chance it's going to contain malware. it's going to contain something. by the way there will be a link at the bottom that says hey if you like this solicitation, cal this phone number. >> brown: one of the issues you write about are the companies are meant to up front enough when things happen. often for very good reasons, right? because the publicity of what happens can be worse than the crime itself. but what do you see from companies these days. are they changing, are they reacting differently, better? >> no, and for one reason. there are more ways to tell when orgainizations have had a breach now. when you look at the target breach, home debow breach, michael's, the others that broke last year, the reason is when that information hits the black market, when they go to sell 40 million credit cards, you can't really hide that under a bucket. you want to tell the world about this, right, because those cards what you're trying to sell will get better with age. so they're putting this out there. once they put it up for sale, the race is on. so law enforcement knows immediately. anybody who is looking hard enough, the bank, sometimes reporters can find them pretty quickly who got breached. >> brown: how did you find out? >> well in the case of target and home depot, it was a matter of some crypts are basically saying hey look we've got a whole bunch of these cards we're going to bush out there in the next couple days. get your budget ready, fill up your balances, get ready to shop. and when they do that, you just may attention. then i start reaching out to banks where i develop(ótqo servs saying hey look, there are 10,000 of your customers cards night. got any clue if there's a commonality in these transactions and they'll come back and say yes they were used in this organization between this time frame and that time frame. you get that from enough organizations and banks the same thing, you feel pretty good about calling the organization up and saying looks like you had a bad day. >> brown: you know, the may question i guessqus, the questih out there is data protectable. is it ownable. you know, are credit cards securable? i mean, hearing more about this age of exchanges without cash,0ñ right, all kinds of electronic exchanges. i think the consumers in the business world has heard anything loud and clear hope clear the last year, from the revelations with the edward snowden scandal and the attacks on personal and financial information vis-a-vis major companies that hold this information. i hope÷ñ it's that if you're not encrypting this information it's as good as stone. because increasingly these companies have to change their mind set but they haven't yet. that mind set shift has to shift from one of well we put all this stuff in place to keep them out. let's make sure we keep them out. there's no way we can keep them out. we realize they're going to get in, how do we protect the data we're responsible for protecting once they get in. >> brown: all the work you've done looking into this that's the advice.has it changed your s or what's the advice you give your loved ones. >> my loved ones. that's quite a bit different. it's pretty simple but it hasn't changed much over the years so it starts with the basic hygiene, security hygiene. and the stuff is not super sexy. unfortunately it's a pain. you know, keeping your operating system up to date with the latest software updates. actually more important is keeping your browser up to date. increasingly the companies or individuals get hacked is9k through the browser. they browse, it gets hacked. if they're not browsing that site with the latest say adobe flash player, java, whatever it is the updates once a month, if they're not up to date you'll have a bad day and the computer's not going to belong to them anymore. i tell people if you installed it, update it. and if you didn't go looking for it don't install it. those two things keep most people out of a lot of trouble. >> brown: we're going to continue this discussion on-line. i'll ask you about bad days you have because you've been a target yourself. the book is spasm nation. brian krebs. thank you very much. >> thanks a lot. >> ifill: for the past year and a half, scientists have been trying to figure out what's behind a mysterious disease that's led to the death of millions of starfish. now they've figured out the culprit, a virus. sea star wasting syndrome has affected more than 20 species of west coast starfish. first detected in washington state last year, it's since spread, decimating populations from mexico all the way to alaska. this story comes from katie campbell at kcts in seattle. she reports for the public media project earthfix. >> reporter: after months of research, scientists have identified the pass gen at the heart of the star wish wasting disease. they say it's different from all other known viruses infected marine organ subpoenas. they stubbed it sea star dense owe virus. >> it's very clear that the virus is associated with symptomatic sea stars. >> reporter: he's a micro biologist at cornell university. he's the lead author of the study. and he says it's rare to figure out what causes marine diseases. >> in every drop of sea water there's 10 million viruses that basically we had to sort through to try to find the supervisor that is responsible for this disease. >> reporter: they collected tissue samples and analyze them for all possible pathogens. once they identified the leading candidate they tested it by injecting the dense owe virus into healthy star fish in an aquarium. then they watched to see the disease. >> we inoculated them. they died within about a week to ;l14 days. they received the virus destroyed by heat, they remain healthy for weeks. >> reporter: what's strange is west coast star fish have been living with the virus for decades. they had the star fish specimen from as far back as the 1940's. >> this is sort of smoldering at a low level and then eventually it becomes sort of an epidemic. something seems to have triggered to make this some sort of benign infection. it's something that's wide spread and affecting so many different species. >> reporter: now that scientists have identified the virus the next step for hewson's team iszenvironmental factors me star fish more susceptible to it. >> ifill: again, the major developments of the day. supporters of the keystone pipeline project fell one vote short in the u.s. senate this evening. they needed 60 votes to advance the project. two palestinian men killed five people at a jerusalem synagogue, and were themselves killed by israeli police. three of the dead were americans. >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now, for artists barbara and larry domsky, being married means a lot of compromises, but when it comes to their artwork, they each have different points of view on working in their medium, glass. see the sculptures they created together in a video from vegas p.b.s., on our "art beat" page. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. >> ifill: and that's it for the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, how one community in washington state is arming school administrators to protect their children. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff, we'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org this is "nightly business report" funded if part by . 43rd record. that's the time the s&p 500 closed at a new high this year. tonight we'll hear from the chief second largest pension fund how he is investing in this market. key vote for keystone. the senate in a test of political power and progresstives fail to pass the controversial pipeline. but the debate for business and environmental interests is sure to

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