Matt's Newsletter - Issue 5
The best I've read - Week ending December 20, 2020
The writings of this week were dominated by coverage of the Solarwinds supply chain attacks. Literally every news source, technology outlet, security company, and industry blog published something about it. I certainly can’t provide anything of greater value so I’ll offer the two best pieces I read (and a video).
CSO Online: Solarwinds attack explained
Cisco Talos: Threat Advisory: Solarwinds Supply Chain Attack
And if you choose to watch rather than read: SANS Emergency Webcast - What you need to know about the Solarwinds attack
Advanced O365 Phishing Attack
Researchers from Abnormal Security documented an advanced phishing campaign targeting enterprise Office 365 users. The malicious emails were titled “Docs Delivery” and offered a downloadable E-Fax. The emails are coming from legitimate email accounts that have been previously compromised. Your email security tools are going to pass them through as, by all technical appearances, they are legitimate messages - TRAIN YOUR PEOPLE to be suspicious!
The Jelly of the Month Club is a much better prize
Info-Security magazine warned Facebook users of a new scam that promises they won the “Christmas Bonus Lottery”. The user is directed to contact a Facebook Agent who arranges the contest payout. Of Course, the “winner” must first provide personal identifying details and pay a “processing fee”.
The case for job rotation
I always stress job rotation when I speak to organizations about preventing employee fraud. Employees should be trained to work in other positions and they should do so at least once per year. It’s a checks and balances system. It’s harder to hide fraud when others occasionally pop-in and do your job.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida announced the arrest and guilty plea of woman who embezzled over 1 million dollars from her employer. She controlled the business’ bank and credit accounts from March 2015 to June 2018. $700,000 of the theft was through unauthorized personal charges made with the business credit card. Was she the only one reviewing the monthly statements? It seems so. Junior accountant Bill would have probably noticed those excessive charges at some prior to the three year mark.
The case against being an “absent owner”
In a similar fraud case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana announced the arrest of a man for stealing over 14 million dollars from a businessman who hired him to run a trucking company. The suspect told the company owner the money was being used for investments.
In reality, it was being invested in himself: Fruits spent a significant portion of the money on his own personal purchases and payments. He allegedly spent approximately $880,000 to purchase a horse farm and his personal residence, $560,000 on an RV and trailer, over $111,000 on a Corvette, approximately $90,000 on three Rolex watches, approximately $55,000 on a horse, $33,000 on a horse trailer, $23,000 on payments for two Ferraris, and $30,000 on payments for two escorts.
The stupidest thing I read this week!
Engadget reports the plastic surgery business is booming because people are turning to cosmetic alterations so they look better on Zoom calls. How about some better lighting and a little make-up?
And the rest…
Spam calls calls are up 18% this year claims caller ID app publisher TrueCaller. The company claims 31.3 billion spam phone calls were made worldwide. This Techcrunch article doesn’t explain how they got those numbers but I believe the claims. I’m certain I’ve received at least a thousand of them.
Cybersecurity company Acronis released their 2020 Cyberthreats report and looking forward to 2021 they claim it will be the “Year of Extortion”. Of course. You have to give away your personal details to actually get the report, but this iTWire article summarizes it nicely.
How Fraud Offenders Rationalize Financial Crime - an academic report by researchers at the University of Sidney (Australia).
The runners of Egregor ransomware are closing out 2020 with a full force offensive. Researchers at TrendMicro document a recent string of high profile attacks.
Dork much? A complete listing of advanced Google search operators.
Cool Tool
Fileshifter - convert image and video files from one format to another.
Cool Job
Protect them vaccines - Senior Cyber Threat Hunter with Pfizer
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