In WTW’s latest Bulldog roundup of science, space and technology news:

  • Hackers break into centralized password manager OneLogin
  • SpaceX launches 1st recycled supply ship
  • Google’s Chrome browser to block some ads starting next year
  • 1st farmer lawsuit on deck against Syngenta over China trade
  • LabCorp worker alleges discrimination in federal lawsuit

The details:

  • Hackers break into centralized password manager OneLogin

Hackers have gained access to OneLogin, an online password manager that offers a single sign-on to multiple websites and services.

OneLogin said in a blog post that it couldn’t rule out the possibility that hackers got keys to reading encrypted data, such as stored passwords.

Published reports, however, say OneLogin informed customers that the hackers indeed got that capability. OneLogin didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Password managers help people keep track of passwords for a growing array of websites and services that require one. Instead of having to remember complex passwords for each one, people can just remember a master password. The password service then unlocks other accounts as needed.

Some security experts say that despite the risks of breaches with password managers, using one to keep track of multiple complex passwords is far better than repeatedly using the same ones at multiple sites.

In 2015, rival LastPass said hackers obtained some user information — although not actual passwords. It advised all users to change their LastPass master password.

While LastPass offers its services to both individuals and businesses, OneLogin focuses on corporate customers and lets employees of those companies access a range of services from Google, Microsoft, Amazon and others. OneLogin’s customers include Pinterest and Conde Nast.

  • SpaceX launches 1st recycled supply ship

SpaceX launched its first recycled cargo ship to the International Space Station on Saturday, yet another milestone in its bid to drive down flight costs.

After a two-day delay caused by thunderstorms, the unmanned Falcon rocket blasted off carrying a Dragon capsule that made a station delivery nearly three years ago. When this refurbished Dragon reaches the orbiting lab on Monday, it will be the first returning craft since NASA’s now-retired shuttles.

[VIDEO: Watch a recap of the launch and landing at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXBFqFaECYA ]

The first-stage booster flown Saturday afternoon was brand new, and as is now the custom, returned to Cape Canaveral following liftoff for a successful vertical touchdown. “The Falcon has landed,” SpaceX Mission Control declared from company headquarters in Hawthorne, California, and a cheer went up.

The plan is to launch the booster again, instead of junking it in the ocean as so many other rocket makers do. Just two months ago, SpaceX launched its first recycled booster on a satellite mission. Another flight featuring a reused booster is coming up later this month.

This Dragon capsule, meanwhile, came back for take two following a few modifications and much testing. Shortly before liftoff, a SpaceX vice president, Hans Koenigsmann, called the Dragon reflight “a pretty big deal.”

It’s all part of the company’s quest, he said, to lower the cost of access to space through reusability.

  • Google’s Chrome browser to block some ads starting next year

Websites that run annoying ads such as pop-ups may find all ads blocked by Google’s Chrome browser starting next year.

The digital-ad giant’s announcement comes as hundreds of millions of internet users have already installed ad blockers on their desktop computers and phones to combat ads that track them and make browsing sites difficult.

These blockers threaten websites that rely on digital ads for revenue. Google’s version will allow ads as long as websites follow industry-created guidelines and minimize certain types of ads that consumers really hate. That includes pop-up ads, huge ads that don’t go away when visitors scroll down a page and video ads that start playing automatically with the sound on.

Google says the feature will be turned on by default, and users can turn it off. It’ll work on both the desktop and mobile versions of Chrome.

Google says that even ads it sells will be blocked on websites that don’t get rid of annoying types of ads.

But there might not be vast changes online triggered by the popular browser’s efforts. It’s a “small number of websites that are disproportionately responsible for annoying user experiences,” Google spokeswoman Suzanne Blackburn said.

“I’m sure there are some publishers who will get hurt,” said Brian Wieser, an ad analyst with Pivotal Research Group. But in the long term, he says, cracking down on irritating ads should make the internet experience better, encouraging people to visit sites and click on links. That, in turn, benefits Google.

  • 1st farmer lawsuit on deck against Syngenta over China trade

The first of tens of thousands of U.S. lawsuits will go to trial on Monday in Kansas against Swiss agribusiness giant Syngenta over its decision to introduce a genetically engineered corn seed variety to the U.S. market before China approved it for imports.

The lawsuits allege Syngenta’s move wrecked an increasingly important export market for U.S. corn and resulted in price drops that hurt all producers. Court filings show Syngenta aggressively marketed the seeds even when it knew Chinese approval was going to be a problem.

Plaintiffs’ experts estimate the economic damage at about $5 billion, though Syngenta denies its actions caused any losses for farmers.

Monday’s trial in Kansas City, Kansas, involves four Kansas farmers representing roughly 7,300 farmers from that state, according to William Chaney, an attorney for the plaintiffs. It will mark the first test case. The second, involving about 60,000 cases, goes to trial July 10 in a state court in Minnesota, where Syngenta’s North American seed business is based in suburban Minneapolis. The two cases are meant to provide guidance for how the complex web of litigation in state and federal courts could be resolved.

  • LabCorp worker alleges discrimination in federal lawsuit

A Laboratory Corporation of America worker says in a lawsuit that the company discriminated against him because of his race and passed over him for a raise because he complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The Times-News of Burlington reports (http://bit.ly/2qPF2VV) Dwayne Muhammad said in the lawsuit that he received a written reprimand for insubordination after a supervisor said he refused to make new controls for a test when he’d done so. Muhammad said the same supervisor told him his job was not to be logical or analyze, but “to obey.”

After filing his complaint, Muhammad said he was passed over for a $1,000-per-year raise. Muhammad is black. The supervisors identified in the lawsuit are white.

A LabCorp spokeswoman said Friday the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation.