Threats Without Borders - Issue 157
Threats Without Borders - Issue 157
Cyber-Financial Crime Newsletter, week ending November 19, 2023
One of the most famous spoken lines from the 90's movie “Boyz in the Hood” is when Doughboy, played by Ice Cube, claims “They just don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s going on in the hood”. He was speaking of society's indifference to the happenings of the inner-city (low-income) neighborhoods. Although it was spoken as a statement of fact, there was a deeper, more rhetorical, question being asked. Which of the situations is it and why?
The same can be applied to the modern police executive concerning technology and Internet-facilitated crime. Do they not know it’s happening? Do they know it’s happening but choose to stay aloof because of the ramifications of accepting the reality? Or do they know and just don’t care?
Possibly, some law enforcement leaders don’t know. In larger agencies, the command staff is generally so far removed from the rank and file that they are unaware of the day-to-day occurrences. For many, it’s not a priority until someone else makes it a priority. And with the budget and staffing issues, many executives have taken on the philosophy “if it doesn’t bleed, it doesn’t have a need”. Most agencies are so busy with keeping order in the streets and tackling physically violent human-on-human crime that something happening in the Interwebs is of the lowest priority. Most summons from victims go something like this: “Oh you got scammed for $10k through an online fraud? Did they stick a knife in you? Did they try to set your house on fire? Are they coming to protest at city hall? No - OK, See if your bank can help you.”
Maybe a report gets made, maybe not, but it’s certainly getting the attention of the command staff.
And non-reporting is an issue. Many victims of cybercrime, particularly businesses and the elderly, never report the incident to law enforcement. Why don’t they report? Embarrassment, shame, self-blame, acceptance, and the belief it’s not worth the effort. It's a legal decision for many victimized businesses to mitigate press coverage or subsequent lawsuits from downstream affected parties. For others, there is a belief that an investigation by law enforcement might further disrupt the business and slow the recovery process.
So, maybe the modern law enforcement executive doesn’t realize the prevalence and extent of cybercrime victimization. Maybe they aren’t prioritizing a response to the problem because they “just don’t know”. Possibly, but I doubt it.
Next week we’ll examine the second component of Doughboy’s percipience - "not showing".
Some News…
They jumped the gun, but it’s scary to consider where this is going. Ransomware group AlphV, also known as BlackCat, claims to have breached digital lending company, MeridianLink. The group alleges stealing considerable customer data and operational information, with threats to leak the data if a ransom is not paid. As part of the extortion effort, they filed a complaint against MeridianLink with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for not disclosing the breach within four business days, as per the agency's recently set rules. To bad the regulations are not in effect until mid-December 2023. The group's use of an SEC complaint is a first. Let’s say the rules were in effect…would AlphV be eligible for the whistleblower award? Asking for a friend. https://www.securityweek.com/ransomware-group-files-sec-complaint-over-victims-failure-to-disclose-data-breach/
The FBI has released a community bulletin concerning the prevalence of “Grandparent Scams”. The fraud community will criticize the release as being “vanilla”, but it’s good for the Bureau to do these every once in a while since the press will run with it and bring some much needed public awareness to the topic. Hopefully. The one item of note in the release: through the 3Q of 2023, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received more than 195 victim complaints regarding grandparent scams, resulting in at least $1.9 million in victim losses. https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2023/PSA231117
Travel guru and deals enthusiast John Jet warns other about a scam “he didn’t see coming”. Actually he did see it coming…he just ignored the warnings. The writer recounts an experience of being invited to participate in a podcast with an offer of $3,000 pre-payment for his participation. The to good to be true offers starts to get sketchy and despite the red flags he decides to go through with it. Guess what - it was too good to be true. The scam was an actual attempt to take over his Facebook page. He expresses his embarrassment and a desire to warn others of this scam. https://johnnyjet.com/scam-alert-i-just-got-suckered-to-be-a-guest-on-a-podcast-for-3000/
Although this National Law Review article is intended for the manufacturing sector, it’s a complete review of the current cybersecurity landscape and fairly applicable to every sector. https://www.natlawreview.com/article/so-you-think-cybersecurity-only-cost-center-think-again
This is an interesting article detailing to the lengths Apple goes to ensure the security of their devices. Timely considering the editorial of Issue 155 regarding the “going dark” phenomena. “We do not see ourselves as set against governments,” says Apple’s head of security engineering. Who also claims “That is not what any of this work is about. But we do see ourselves as having a duty to defend our users from threats, whether common or in some cases, truly grave.” https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/iphone-apple-security-software-lockdown-mode-b2450192.html
Four men in Missouri are facing multiple federal charges for using fake cashier’s checks to buy vehicles from private sellers online and then resell them for a profit. The group targeted vehicle sellers on Facebook and Craigslist with fake cashier’s checks. Once the fraudsters possessed a vehicle, they would then resell it to someone else for cash before the original victim could realize the cashier’s check was worthless. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdil/pr/four-indicted-federal-charges-fraudulent-vehicle-sale-scheme
Vermont Responds
In response to my call for a resident of Vermont to subscribe to the newsletter:
Hi Matt. Hopefully this gets back to you. You do have a subscriber in Vermont!!! Happy Thanksgiving! - Christine M. checking in from Berlin, Vermont.
Cool Job
meh…nothing interesting this week.
Cool Tool
Need to send a Windows PC user an image but forgot to set your iPhone camera to save in .jpg and not HEIC? (Settings>Camera>Formats>Most Compatible) Try this HEIC to JPG converter. https://heic-converter.vercel.app/
Python tool for OSINT: Subby - sub domain enumeration https://github.com/n0mi1k/subby
Relavant
Is crime booming or is it just a perception? A new Gallup poll shows American’s believe crime is increasing, wildly. In fact, 63% of those polled say the crime problem is “Very Serious”. Hmmm… who would have thought… https://news.gallup.com/poll/544442/americans-crime-problem-serious.aspx
The newsletter gained several new subscribers over the past week - WELCOME! Hopefully, your email provider decides to deliver the email so you can read this. That’s the problem with a email delivered newsletter - some mail providers decide to not deliver it. Yahoo seems to be the most common culprit for just randomly dropping Substack emails completely. SO… the newsletter is published every Tuesday, check the spambox if you don’t see it in your inbox by 10:00am EST. If it’s not there then go directly to the newsletter’s Substack page. If it’s not there - then send prayers because I’m in a bad way.
And you can respond back by replying to the email that delivered the newsletter. (Maybe. Sometimes that gets blocked too). Or be brave…and post a comment below.
Have a great week and Happy Turkey Day!
Matt
Legal: I am not compensated by any entity for writing this newsletter. Obviously, anything written in this space is my own nonsensical opinion and doesn’t represent the official viewpoint of my employer or any associated organization. Blame me, not them.