Threats Without Borders - Issue 137
Threats Without Borders - Issue 137
Cyber-Financial Investigation Newsletter, Week ending July 2, 2023
My home lost Internet connectivity last week due to an outage that affected the neighborhood. Don’t worry Verizon credited my bill FIVE dollars for the trouble. Yes, they really did.
We have reached the point where it is oddly unsettling to lose connection to the Internet. It is like the teenage version of FOMO – Fear of Missing Out; But at a more primal level. FOBU – Fear of Being Unconnected. The loss of connectedness to others and the inability to instantly access information is an unfamiliar mental stumbling block that results in an uncomfortable feeling of worry. We still had connectivity through cell phones but our budget wireless plan isn’t sufficient for heavy lifting.
I’d like to say I used the time to do something productive - read a book, write a book, have a deep conversation with my wife. Nope. I can’t really explain what I did with the time but I have nothing productive to show for it. I did go to bed early one night so I got that out of it.
Happy Independence Day!!!
More Internet Cops
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed new regulations to curb the use of fake reviews and endorsements by hucksters attempting to sell their products and services online. The 100 page supporting document is actually worth the read - or at least skim, as it has some very detailed trade information and even some dirt.
Fake Review Watch, which supports a rulemaking, said that there is a robust black market for paid for (or traded for) reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook, Trustpilot, and numerous other review sites and that many of the transactions are conducted on social media.77 It stated that fake reviews are commonplace and often difficult to detect without examining review profile histories across multiple businesses.78 Fake Review Watch has observed over 100 Facebook groups operating as review exchanges, with hundreds or thousands of members each. 79 The comment also asserted that Google: (a) often allows profiles that posted fake reviews to remain active even after it removes those reviews, (b) provides no alerts to consumers about businesses with fake reviews, and (c) makes fake review detection more difficult by allowing profiles to choose not to display all of their reviews and by not displaying the dates of reviews.
I support this effort and wish the FTC the best, but it seems like trying to kill flies in a stable with only a rolled up newspaper. You’ll get one every so often but there are 100’s more to replace it. Who’s going to investigate it? And how? It’s a battle that needs to be fought, but these new Internet cops are going to get a face-full of futility.
FTC Press Release - https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/06/federal-trade-commission-announces-proposed-rule-banning-fake-reviews-testimonials
FTC Rule Proposal - https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/r311003consumerreviewsandtestimonials_nprm.pdf
QRush QR codes
Much to the chagrin of the HR and Marketing professionals at my workplace, I strongly advocate against the use of QR codes. Even with the new link-preview protections added by iOS and Android, you really don’t know what the code contains or where you’ll end up. The counter-argument is that you really don’t know where a URL link is taking you either. Maybe, but there are much better ways to mitigate a questionable alpha-numeric link than QR code. INKY details how threat actors are incorporating QR codes into phishing messages. https://www.inky.com/en/blog/fresh-phish-malicious-qr-codes-are-quickly-retrieving-employee-credentials
Swatting Swatting
It’s only taken a few years, well more than a few, but the FBI will try to address “swatting attacks”. “Swatting has become so common that several subclasses have already been defined, including celebrity swatting, gamer swatting, partisan swatting (directed against politicians), and hate swatting”. The database will help to link law enforcement agencies from across the nation investigating similar attacks or those with common elements. Wow! What a novel idea. Wouldn’t a database tracking money mules make sense too? I digress. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/06/fbi-finally-tracks-swatting-incidents-as-attacks-increase-nationwide/
Stupid news of the week
This school in Illinois believed the best way to do password maintenance was to set everyone’s password at “Ch@ngeme” so the students could log-in and well, change it. Every student had the exact same password…. and the username was the email address. Every student therefor knew how to access every other students academic Google account. Hopefully someone is unemployed over this. https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/29/high-school-changes-every-students-password-to-chngeme/
The Rest…
TrendMicro looks at how voice-cloning tools and AI are being used to conduct extortion through simulated kidnappings. https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/how-cybercriminals-can-perform-virtual-kidnapping-scams-using-ai-voice-cloning-tools-and-chatgpt
POS gets six years in federal prison after trying to hire a hitman to kill his juvenile assault victim. https://www.pennlive.com/news/2023/06/nj-man-sentenced-after-paying-scammer-hitman-20k-in-bitcoin-to-kill-child-porn-victim.html
Cool Job
Senior Director - Head of Global Fraud Risk. Northern Trust. https://careers.northerntrust.com/jobs/sr-director-head-of-global-fraud-risk-38189?src=sns-102
Cool Tool
Convert any file type to any other file type (just be aware you’re uploading the file to someones server) https://skyconvert.net/
Irrelevant
25 “BEST” whiskies to taste in July - according to some guy who gets to drink whisky for a living. https://uproxx.com/life/best-whiskeys-july-2023/
Fallacy of Retrospective Determinism - The fallacy of retrospective determinism argues that because something happened, it was inevitable. Example: “The ransomware epidemic was bound to happen after the invention of cryptocurrency”. (Cryptocurrency has made it easier to monetize ransomware, but ransomware does not exist because of cryptocurrency).
Thank You for being a reader. And a special thank-you to the handful of new subscribers that decided to take the leap of faith after hearing me speak last week. Welcome! And I’ll do my best not to disappoint you. Please consider going back and reviewing previous issues - especially Issues 131- 136 where I do a deep dive on IP addresses.
Matt
“WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO, DO IT NOW. THERE ARE ONLY SO MANY TOMORROWS.”
Legal: I am not compensated by any entity for writing this newsletter. Obviously, anything written in this space is my own nonsensical opinions and doesn’t represent the official viewpoint of my employer or any associated organization. Blame me, not them.