Threats Without Borders - Issue 66

Matt's Newsletter - Week ending February 20, 2022

Feb 22, 2022

Welcome to Issue 66.

Last week, I presented to the Delaware Valley Chapter of the International Association of Financial Crime Investigators. The intent of the talk was to demonstrate the lack of privacy when using Google products but many of the follow-up questions were about specific technologies that I personally use. I received several subsequent emails seeking additional clarification and technical advice. So, I thought I'd do a write-up detailing my personal Tech Stack. Here is a general list of the technology, both hardware and software, that I use every day (almost).

The writing will be published in two different pieces due to its length. The first piece will detail the physical hardware devices and the second (next week) will be the software and services.

B list actor but Emmy worthy scammer

B list actor Zachary Horowitz organized and ran a Ponzi scheme that swindled $650 million dollars from his Hollywood investors. Horwitz, who acted in small-time films under the name Zach Avery, told investors he was buying foreign distribution rights for US movies, and then selling them to streaming platforms. He was able to continue the scheme for over five years, which is much more successful than his acting career. https://nypost.com/2022/02/15/zachary-joseph-horwitz-gets-20-years-in-prison-from-hbo-netflix-ponzi-scheme/

Warmongers and Criminals

This Chainalysis report documents what we already knew, Russia accounts for a disproportionate share of activity related to cryptocurrency based crime. The researchers found that “Overall, roughly 74% of ransomware revenue in 2021 — over $400 million worth of cryptocurrency — went to strains we can say are highly likely to be affiliated with Russia in some way”. As the news cycle is currently driven by the pending Russian invasion of Ukraine, it’s also important to remember how their associated criminal activity affects the rest of the world. https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2022-crypto-crime-report-preview-russia-ransomware-money-laundering/

Lesson Learned

BishopFox explains why you should never use pixelation as a text redaction technique. Something I do! Lesson learned. The author created a tool that will return pixelated text to its original form. If they can create a tool then the bad guys have something like it also. Be certain of that. https://bishopfox.com/blog/unredacter-tool-never-pixelation

Plaid is only good for shirts and VW GTI seats

My son recently had to link his bank account to another service through Plaid. I helped him do it and it seemed super-jinky at the time. I read their published security and privacy statements and although everything seems legit it just seemed too easy of a solution to be true. Drew DeVault issued a warning this week that “Plaid is an evil nightmare product from security hell”. I’ll defer to his aggressive, passionate, hate, for this product that it’s probably not a good service. https://drewdevault.com/2022/02/19/Plaid-is-an-evil-nightmare-product.html

The Rest…

A Cumberland County, PA man has been charged for a scheme that defrauded the medicare program out of $191,000. https://www.pennlive.com/news/2022/02/cumberland-county-man-faces-several-charges-including-money-laundering.html

Although an older notice, people keep falling victim to QR Code scams. The FBI wishes they wouldn’t. https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2022/PSA220118

You should know what a zero-click attack is and why it’s nearly impossible to stop them. https://www.bloombergquint.com/technology/-zero-click-hacks-by-nso-group-and-others-growing-in-popularity

In other Middle District of Pennsylvania news - a Detroit man plead guilt to defrauding seven banks and credit unions out of 218 Thousand dollars. https://www.pennlive.com/news/2022/02/reputed-ringleader-admits-conspiring-to-scam-seven-pa-banks-and-credit-unions.html

Cool Jobs

Security Intelligence and Investigations - SpaceX

Director of Global Investigations - Circle

Cool Tools

Reverse image search and search by hand-drawn sketch - https://www.immerse.zone/

Turn your text into human speech (surprisingly good) - https://www.vanillavoice.com/

Irrelevant

Embrace the 40% Rule to become more successful. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrismyers/2017/10/06/the-40-rule-the-simple-secret-to-success/?sh=213ceb3c5cdd

Homophones are hard

Rap - to hit sharply or swiftly, or to criticize with blame

Wrap - To cover, envelop, or encase, as by folding or coiling something about.

Thank you for reading this weeks email. Please consider forwarding it to a colleague who might find it enjoyable.

Matt

“BEING LAZY ENDS UP MAKING YOU MORE TIRED.” - someone not as tired as me

Threats Without Borders