The cyber attack that slowed many popular websites to a crawl last week is considered unprecedented in its ability to hit so many Americans, NBC News reported.

The attack used a new type of malware that takes control of tens of millions of personal devices connected to the internet — including home routers, baby monitors and cameras — without their owners' knowledge.

The Chief Strategy Officer of the New Hampshire tech company that was targeted by the attack called the attack "absolutely unprecedented."

"What we discovered [was that] it was a part of an botnet attack called the Mirai botnet, which basically goes into folks' homes and takes over Internet of Things devices and literally turns them into attack vectors," Dyn's Kyle York said.

A vehicle carrying marijuana-laced candy caught fire on the Delaware Memorial Bridge Sunday, causing lane closures and a massive backup.

The Weed World Candies truck was traveling from Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia when it caught fire on the northbound side of the bridge around 6 p.m. Two northbound lanes were closed, causing heavy traffic as firefighters responded.

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Firefighters were eventually able to bring the flames under control and no injuries were reported, according to bridge authority officials.

Weed World Candies is an organization that launched in 1999 that uses tour vehicles to promote the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana. The company also sells marijuana-laced candy.

"Dr. Dro," the owner of 'Weed World Candies,' told NBC10 in Philadelphia that more than $50,000 in merchandise was lost in the fire. The company is visiting colleges on the East Coast.

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Attention all Thin Mints fanatics: Two flavors of Girl Scout Cookies are coming to cereal boxes this winter.

General Mills is teaming up with the Girl Scouts to launch limited edition Girl Scout cookie cereals, the company says.

Thin Mints and Caramel Crunch (you know them as Samoas, in cookie form) are the featured cereal flavors. Starting in January 2017, the Girl Scout cookie cereals will be available nationwide, according to General Mills spokesman Mike Siemienas. 

It will come out as the Girl Scouts mark 100 years of selling their world famous cookies in 2017. 

From the Girls Scouts website: "It started in 1917 when Girl Scouts in Muskogee, Oklahoma, did what Girl Scouts everywhere always do. They had a great idea. The girls of Mistletoe Troop hit upon the clever idea to fund their projects by selling cookies they made themselves in their kitchens at home."

Over a million girls have sold the signature cookies to help teach empowerment and life skills. 

Four juveniles were arrested in a series of flash mob-style attacks on Temple University's campus this weekend that left students and police officers hurt, police and university officials said.

Groups of young people, estimated to number between 20 to 100, roved the school's North Philadelphia campus Friday night for nearly two hours causing havoc, authorities said.

Students were punched and kicked, an officer tossed to the ground and stones were thrown at passing cars, police said. Officers from three agencies — the Philadelphia Police Department, Temple University police and SEPTA police —responded to the incidents.

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As many as six Temple students were hurt in the attacks as they walked around campus between 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. that night, along with a university police officer and a Philadelphia police horse. 

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One student, who was not identified, told the college news site The Tab she was walking with her boyfriend near 16th and Oxford streets around 8 p.m. when they were attacked by two kids.

The student told the news site her boyfriend was able to run away but she was grabbed by the hair and beaten on her head and back.

“I somehow got to the other side of Oxford Street by the time they got me to the ground. I remember shoes coming for my face and after that I heard other kids from the group saying ‘Yo chill, yo chill, it’s just a girl’ and they pulled my attackers off me," she reportedly said.

Police said a 20-year-old man also fell victim to an attack by kids from this group.

At 9 p.m., a Temple police officer was tossed to the ground, landing on top of her patrol bike, while trying to apprehend a 15-year-old boy who was seen throwing rocks at cars driving along Broad Street, police said.

The teen was running from officers when he attacked the patrolwoman, police said. She suffered bruises to her leg and a scrape to her knee. The teen was apprehended a block away.

About 10 minutes later, a 15-year-old teen walked up to an equine officer and punched the animal in the head and face at Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue, police said. The mounted officer had been dispatched to help disperse as many as 100 kids at that corner.

He was arrested following a short chase.

Another attack happened about 10 minutes after that, around 9:20 p.m., along the 1700 block of Cecil B. Moore Avenue. Three teens, an 18-year-old girl and two 19-year-old boys, were beaten down by as many as 30 young people, police said.

The girl suffered scrapes and cuts to her legs. Her cellphone was smashed and debit card stolen. Between the boys, an iPhone, wallet, backpack and Bluetooth wireless speaker was taken, according to police.

The suspects in this attack have not yet been arrested.

In all, as many as 50 juveniles were taken into custody and four — ranging in age from 15 to 17 years old — were charged with crimes. The charges include aggravated assault, robbery and assaulting a police officer.

Temple spokesman Ray Betzner said Friday the juveniles played a "cat-and-mouse game" with officers. A campus alert warning students and staff was sent around 9:30 p.m.

Joe Lauletta, the father of one of the apparent victims, posted an angry message to Facebook about his daughter's attack.

He said the youth who attacked his daughter "held her down and kicked and stomped on her repeatedly," referring to the attackers as "sick animals." The attack landed her in the hospital, he added.

NBC10 reached out to Lauletta for an interview.

Lauletta said his daughter and two male friends were exiting the subway, coming home from the Temple football game when they were beaten.

Philadelphia police, Temple police and the university are all investigating the incidents.

The woman known only as "Jackie" who's at the center of a discredited Rolling Stone article said in a taped deposition that she told the truth about being gang raped at the University of Virginia — as she believed it at the time, NBC News reported.

The 10 jurors in a university administrator's defamation suit against the magazine heard the woman's videotaped deposition for the first time Monday in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

In the deposition, which was recorded in April, "Jackie" repeatedly answers "I don't know" to lawyers' questions about the 2014 article by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, in which she alleged that she was repeatedly assaulted at a fraternity house.

The magazine retracted the article after police said they found no evidence to corroborate it. Nicole Eramo, who was associate dean of students at the time, is seeking $7.5 million from Rolling Stone, which she says portrayed her as the villain.

UPDATE: Rihanna, Missy Elliott Join Surging Call to Help Find Missing Dancer 

Police are investigating the disappearance of a 32-year-old celebrity backup dancer from New Jersey who has performed behind the likes of Beyonce and Rihanna. 

Shirlene Quigley, who lives alone in North Bergen and teaches dance at Peridance Capezio Center and Broadway Dance Center in Manhattan, according to her Facebook page, was last seen getting on a bus at Port Authority around 1 a.m. Sunday, her father said. 

Her father, who lives in California, said Quigley normally calls him every day around 6 p.m., and he became concerned when he hadn't heard from her.

"I just want her to come home, or if someone has her to let her be," the father said. "She's everything to me. She's why I live." 

Rihanna called Quigley a "beautiful soul" in an Instagram post that included a video of the missing 32-year-old contemplating peace and love.

"Imagine if we treated each other like we all came from the same family," Quigley says in the video. "If you are in my life, I love you, whether it be 10 seconds or forever, because we're all family." 

Missy Elliott posted a collage of Quigley to Instagram, urging people to call police if they have information. 

Police say Quigley's phone was found at a bridal store in Chelsea; her father says she could've been there to pick up something for a show. 

Quigley's father said his daughter made a strange comment to her friend recently along the lines of "Get ready, it's about to happen and I'm going to need you to sub for me." 

Quigley attended Liberty Church in Brooklyn; her father says that she is very religious, and that lately she has seemed "euphoric." 

Her landlord saw her leave her New Jersey home Saturday afternoon and later called a friend to say Quigley did not seem well, the friend said. 

According to her personal website, Quigley's dance career launched when she was 18 and earned a role as one of the "uhh ohh girls" on Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" music video. She has performed on an array of awards shows, including the VMA's, Grammy's and ESPY Awards. 

Quigley created the first high heel dance class at a studio in her hometown of Los Angeles and later brought the workshop to New York City. She has also taught at dance studios around the world, her website says.

On Monday it was Sen. Elizabeth Warren's turn to join her fellow Democrats in cranking up the heat on Republican members of the Senate, who have become targets in the closing days of the campaign.

Addressing an enthusiastic outdoor rally on a crisp New England autumn day, Warren had plenty of barbs for Republican Donald Trump. But the Massachusetts Democrat also tore into the state's Republican incumbent, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, with unusual ferocity, NBC News reported.

"Donald Trump sure has made Kelly Ayotte dance. Day one she loves him, day two she hates him, day three she's back with him — boy, spins round and round," Warren told hundreds on a lawn at St. Anselm College.

Ayotte is in a tight race for re-election against Gov. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat. Like most of the other GOP senators up for reelection this year, Ayotte hardly comes from Trump's wing of the party and has never been a vocal supporter.

But there is no safe distance Republicans can stand from Trump. Democrats, eyeing multiple polls suggesting Clinton has all but sewn up the presidential race, are spending the final two weeks of this campaign working mercilessly to turn the entire GOP into Trump's collateral damage.

Estelle Schultz was born before women had the right to vote, and she's hoping she will soon see the first woman president take office.

Schultz, a 98-year-old Rockville, Maryland, resident recently cast her vote for Hillary Clinton.

"I'm very thrilled to be able to be alive at this crucial election," she told News4.

The great-grandmother said she never thought she would see the day a woman was so close to being voted into the White House. Schultz was born in 1918, two years before women across the United States got the vote in 1920.

"I think it's the most exciting thing that can happen to women anywhere, anytime," she said.

Schultz's daughter and granddaughter started a website called I Waited 96 Years! that is collecting the stories of women in their 90s or older who are casting their votes for Clinton. As of Monday evening, the site had stories and photos from nearly 20 women.

“I am looking forward to the first female U.S. President. I believe Hillary will do an excellent job as president not because she is a woman but because she is most qualified," a 102-year-old Arizona woman, Geraldine "Jerry" Emmett, is quoted as saying.

"I can't say how proud I am to get to vote for her," a 96-year-old Pennsylvania woman, Alice Siegel, is quoted as saying.

Schultz, a New York native, retired 20 years ago as an assistant schools superintendent in Compton, California. She reads the paper every day and keeps up with every twist and turn of the presidential race.

On one wall of her home hangs a photo of her as a 1-year-old, taken one year before women could vote.

"If you have the privilege, grab it," she said.

A runner who once tipped the scale at 200 pounds in college finished his record-breaking run across the United States, crossing the finish line at City Hall on Monday night.

Financial analyst by day and ultra-athlete Pete Kostelnick’s started running from San Francisco to New York City on Sept. 12. His time was 42 days, 6 hours and 30 minutes, beating the previous record of 46 days, 8 hours and 36 minutes set by Frank Giannino Jr. in 1980. Though many have tried, no one had succeeded in breaking the 36-year-old record until Kostelnick.

The runner is now awaiting confirmation from Guiness World Records for the record title of “Fastest Crossing of America on Foot (male)."

Kolstelnick first started running to lose weight and set a personal goal to complete a marathon. His father and future wife encouraged him as he trained to qualify for the Boston Marathon, which he did in 2009 and ran in 2010.

Running the Boston Marathon sparked a passion in Kostelnick and he went on to run 423 miles in seven days across Iowa, win the 2015 Badwater 135 and break the record at the 2016 STYR Labs Badwater 135 by running it in 21 hours, 56 minutes and 32 seconds.

Kostelnick’s dreams didn’t stop there, and he set out to accomplishing breaking the U.S. coast-to-coast running record.

Kostelnick ran an average of at least seventy-two miles per day during his 3,100 cross-country marathon, enduring storms and mountains. The runner wore two GPS watches at all times in case one broke and carefully documented his progress for Guinness.

To help him, a four-person support team traveled on the road, waking with Kostelnick between 3 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. to study the day’s route and weather and handle nutrition, appropriate clothing and hydration.

Fans and fellow runners kept up with Kostelnick’s well-documented journey and some even ran alongside him for legs of the route.

Kostelnick was sponsored by Hoka One One.

Twitter is planning another round of layoffs within the next week, according to a report from Bloomberg Technology, which cited sources familiar with the matter.

The San Francisco-based social media company may lay off about 300 workers, about 8 percent of its workforce, the same percentage it cut last year when co-founder Jack Dorsey took over as CEO, the Bloomberg report said.

An announcement about the job cuts may come before Twitter releases its third-quarter earnings report on Thursday, one of the sources told Bloomberg. The company declined to comment.

Twitter has been looking into a sale in recent weeks, but several top tech companies that had expressed interest in bidding -- including Salesforce, Disney and Google -- have backed off.

Twitter's losses and plummeting share price have made it more difficult for the company to pay its engineers in stock and add new talent, analysts have said.

Twitter shares closed at $18.03 on Monday.

A man is in custody after two of his neighbors were found fatally shot early Sunday morning, say police in North Texas.

Fort Worth police said officers were called to a home on the 900 block of Buffalo Springs Drive at about 4 a.m. A spokesman said the original call was a report of a robbery.

When officers arrived, they found two bodies outside the home.

On Monday, police said 35-year-old Cary Joseph Heath was arrested on a capital murder charge at Permenter Middle School in Cedar Hill, where he is employed as a teacher.

Heath was booked on a $1 million bond. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney; jail records do not list an attorney for Heath.

Jordan Milner, who lives across the street from the crime scene, said a neighbor shot his next-door neighbors.

"My wife woke me up and said someone is banging on the door," Milner said. "Turns out what my wife heard were gunshots. From my understanding, the guy had an assault rife. From the looks of it, due to the shell casings, he unloaded the whole clip and killed two of the people who lived next door."

Police have not released a motive in the shooting or released the names of the two people killed.

Milner said the victims were longtime residents.

A spokesperson for the Cedar Hill Independent School District said Heath has been placed on administrative leave.

NBC 5's Chris Jose contributed to this report.

Two boys are recovering from serious injuries they sustained when their father grabbed them and plunged about 100 feet from a highway bridge onto a wooded embankment following a domestic dispute with his wife, New Jersey State Police said. 

The 1-year-old and 3-year-old boys were taken to St. Joseph's Hospital Monday night after their father, identified as John Spincken, jumped off the bridge over the Wanaque River with his children in his arms. Spincken died.

State troopers were called to Interstate 287 near mile marker 56 about 8 p.m. after getting reports from a local police department about the suicidal father. 

Police said Spincken was arguing with his wife and that he threatened to harm himself and his children before taking off with the boys in his SUV. The wife called 911 and police used the GPS in Spincken's cellphone to track him within a 2,000 square foot radius. 

Searchers found the man and his sons in the woods near the river, troopers said. Spincken was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Police found the father's SUV near the bridge. They believe he climbed on top of the vehicle and scaled the "suicide prevention fence" on 287 before he jumped. He and the two boys hit the embankment below.

On Tuesday morning, Pequannock Captain Christopher DePuyt called the boys' expected recovery "a miracle." 

One of the boys suffered a collapsed lung and the other boy had a spinal injury, according to police. They are recovering in the intensive care unit. 

DePuyt said that his department didn't have a history with the family before Monday night's domestic dispute and that the children will be released into the custody of their mother. 

Donald Trump on Monday told News4Jax that the United States military "conceptually" endorsed him and that "virtually every police department" supports his bid for the presidency. And during the third presidential debate, Trump said his hardline stance on immigration had earned him an endorsement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, NBC News reported.

None of that is true.

Federal agencies are barred by law from endorsing candidates in political elections. The Department of Defense, meanwhile, has its own set of guidelines that tightly restricts any active duty military or civilian personnel from publicly choosing political sides.

ICE has not endorsed any candidate, nor is it able to. Instead the union representing ICE employees, National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, gave the Republican nominee its backing. And it represents just a quarter of the more than 20,000 employees that work at the agency.

With Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump in the polls as the election enters its final two weeks, a majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters see a lasting fracture in the Republican Party, according to the latest NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll.

In a four-way match-up, Clinton has 46 percent support this week among likely voters, while Trump holds onto 41 percent support.

As several prominent GOP party leaders and down-ballot Republican contenders scramble to figure out the potential impact of a Clinton victory in their respective states, 74 percent of likely voters overall say that the GOP is divided and will remain so through the general election in November.

Two men and two women were killed riding a river rapids ride at Dreamworld, Australia's largest theme park, on Tuesday, NBC News reported. 

A "malfunction" ejected two victims from their raft and caused two others to become "trapped" on the Thunder River Rapids, according to ambulance service official Gavin Fuller.

He would not say exactly how they were killed, only that their injuries were "incompatible with life." Officials did not identify the victims but said they were two women, both aged 42, and two men, aged 38 and 35.

Queensland Police said in a separate statement that the victims had been injured by a "conveyor belt," referring to the moving ramp that pulls rafts out of the water at the end of the course.