Threats Without Borders - Issue 47
Matt's Newsletter - Week ending October 10, 2021
Welcome to Issue 47! Thank You for reading.
In Issue 45, I called for the Biden administration to be more aggressive in dealing with countries that harbor and support cybercrime actors. I expanded on that in this writing: Cybercrime and Molluscs.
Right on cue, Microsoft released their Digital Defense Report. It is an insightful report that is well written and their website provide great graphics. Two key metrics you need to know: 1) Over the past year, 58% of nation-state attacks observed by Microsoft are launched from Russia. 2) Over the past year, the most targeted country is the United States at 46%.
Go read it now. Well, after you finish reading TWB Issue 47.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/business/microsoft-digital-defense-report?rtc=1
Maybe the worst persons on earth
Kudo’s to the Pennsylvania State Police for arresting four of the absolute worst persons on earth. People who exploit the elderly by preying upon their loyalty to family are second only to child molesters. And people who cruise in the left lane at below passing speed. These four pieces of trash were arrested for running a “grandparent fraud” that bilked money from at least ten elderly victims. https://www.wtae.com/article/scam-grandparents-western-pennsylvania-police-arrest-four/37827317
Yeah, this isn’t about tax cheats
The Biden administrations wants financial institutions to report everyone who accrues more than $600 hundred dollars in an account. No, I didn’t leave a 0 off that number. The administrations claims this will help catch tax cheats. How much can you cheat if you only have $600 or even $6000 dollars in your account? There is no legitimate reason to be monitoring such minor accounts. And you can’t convince me that it’s to catch people who farm accounts - they would have to open dozens of accounts to still stay under the radar, even if the level was set at $10,000. https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/10/banks-would-have-to-give-irs-data-on-accounts-with-more-than-600-under-proposal-to-catch-tax-cheats.html
They must not have Cash App
Working in a tourist town, I get several real estate fraud investigations every year. And those are just the ones where people lose money. We take several more reports where the would-be victims catch on before parting with their cash and still file a report. Law enforcement in Europe took out a real estate fraud group that consisted of over 130 suspects and bilked at least 4 million USD from over 470 victims. Here in the states, our investigations usually end when the transfer was conducted through Cash App. Not because we give up, but because they don’t respond to our warrants. Or at least not in the same year. https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/police-crack-real-estate-fraud-gang/
Duh!
The person behind the NFT sale and trading group “Evil Ape” has disappeared and took the cash with him - all 2.7 million dollars. Investors are concerned and dismayed. What did they think was going to happen? You invested money in a digital cartoon character! Although they have lost their money, the players in the game vow to fight on. Good grief. https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3dyem/investors-spent-millions-on-evolved-apes-nfts-then-they-got-scammed
The Rest…
A fascinating explanation of Nigerian BEC threat actors by Unit 42. https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/silverterrier-nigerian-business-email-compromise/
Phishing attacks are the top cybercrime threat…debatable, but we’ll go with it for this article. https://securityintelligence.com/posts/phishing-attacks-top-cyber-threat-create-deploy/
All the rage, the Pandora Papers investigation and report reveals prolific financial crime enablers worldwide. https://theconversation.com/paid-millions-to-hide-trillions-pandora-papers-expose-financial-crime-enablers-too-169326
Vice tells us what we all inherently know…there is no escape from this robocall hell! https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7e9va/there-is-no-escape-from-americas-robocall-hell
Florida man pleads guilty to investment fraud which resulted in victims losing over 3 million dollars. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/pr/west-palm-beach-investment-fraudster-guilty-wire-fraud-victim-losses-millions
18 former NBA players have been charged with abusing the leagues health and welfare plan to a loss of over 2.5 millions dollars. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32354861/former-nba-players-charged-4m-health-care-fraud-scheme
Cool Tools
Convert whole webpages into PDF’s - https://txtpaper.com/
Who called you? - https://calleridtest.com/
Cool Job
Head of Investigations - Risk Assessment : Facebook (Maybe you can save this sinking ship!)
“NOT EVERYTHING IN YOUR BRAIN NEEDS TO COME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH.” - Definitely someone smarter than me.
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See you next Tuesday!
Matt