Welcome and thank you for your attention.
This is issue ONE. It is an experiment of style and formatting with some valuable information thrown in. Please consider subscribing if you like what you see. It will evolve but the focus will remain - delivering news and threat intelligence to cyber-financial crime investigators.
I plan to release a new issue every Monday.
DDOS attacks are surging
Dedicated Denial of Service attacks occur when someone directs a massive amount of web traffic at a single resource - be it a single website, web server, communication channel ect… The excessive bandwidth overloads the resource and renders it unavailable to everyone else. This a very effective way to knock a business rival’s website offline, censor a political enemy, or punish someone you feel has wronged you. It is also a very effective way to commit extortion or RDDOS (Ransom Dedicated Denial of Service) as it is now called . Think about the 1920’s gangster movies: “You have a real nice shop here, it would be shame if you had a fire”. The modern day version is an email explaining, “you have a real nice website selling flowers, it would be a shame if it was knocked offline the week of Mother’s Day”. Or even more timely, “You have a real nice website, imagine if it wasn’t available on “Cyber Monday"?”.
Cloudfare discusses DDOS attack trends observed through Q3
Luxotica breach exposes over 820 thousand customer records
Do you have eyes? If so, chances are you have done business with Luxotica. They make almost every brand of sunglasses controlling nearly 80% of the market. They also partner with vision care providers LensCrafters, Target Optical, EyeMed, and Pearle Vision. Oh, and they own Sunglass hut.
Luxotica notified patients: “The personal information involved in this incident may have included: full name, contact information, appointment date and time, health insurance policy number, and doctor or appointment notes that may indicate information related to eye care treatment, such as prescriptions, health conditions or procedures,"
BEC Fraud Launched Through Zoom
The technical details are scarce as to how this exactly occurred but it appears certain that an Australian business was victimized through a malicious Zoom meeting invite. Accepting the invite allows the attackers access to an executives email account which was then used to send out BEC style emails. It will be interesting to see how the attack actually works once the full details are released.
Levitas Capital Closing After Attack Through Fake Zoom Invite
2019 Wawa Data breach compromises 30 million card accounts - who pays?
Well we all do, but the Eastern District of PA will decide this case where a group of credit unions is suing Wawa for their collective financial losses. The CU’s claim Wawa failed to maintain PCI DSS standards which renders them liable for the loss. Obviously Wawa feels differently.
National Law Review briefs the case
Background for those unfamiliar
The case reminds me of the proverbial circular stand-off, Its your fault you pay, No You Pay, No You Pay…
And in more recent card skimmer news - a new Grelos Skimmer variant found alive
Threatpost provides a general overview of the variant and some historical perspective: New Grelos Skimmer Variant Siphons Credit Card Data
RiskIQ researchers discovered the updated skimmer and provides a deep-dive: A New Grelos Skimmer Reflects the Depth and Murkiness of Magecart Ecosystem.
The Rest…
GoDaddy employees fall for Vishing and lose control of cryptocurrency domains - they apparently didn’t learn their lesson from previous incidents or make any changes since this happened five years ago: GoDaddy Admits Social Engineering Attack…
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released an update to their browser security and privacy tool Panopticlick. Test your browser and see what information your leaking as your travel the web. Introducing Cover Your Tracks
Ransomware gang steal the data, promise to not make it public if you pay the ransom, release it anyways after ransom is paid. Who would have thought, criminals not keeping their word? Phish Labs: Ransomware Group Break Promises
Nasdaq buys financial fraud detection firm Verafin for 2.75 BILLION!!!
Cool Tool
Export Comments is a tool that allows you to do just that - export comments from Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter ect… comments are exported to a CSV file. This a lot easier than cutting and pasting comments out to a word doc! The free tier is limited to 100 comments.