Threats Without Borders - Issue 92

Matt's Newsletter, Week ending August 21, 2022

No commentary this week as I my writing time was limited. I dropped my oldest son off at college for the first time which turned out to be rather anti-climatic. But the packing, travel, and emotions, took a toll.

I go to the doctors this week for a full physical which probably won’t end well for me. At my last physical the doctor told me I was pre-diabetic and seriously needed to change to my diet. I haven’t, and if anything, ramped it up. And not in the right direction.

It seems I have a lot in common with our new Roomba robot vacuum. We both wander aimlessly just running into walls and neither of us is very efficient at our jobs.

Lot of Risk…Little Reward

The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged three with profiting off the 2017 Equifax breach. One of the trio worked for the public relations firm hired to handle the disclosure of the breach. Using the insider information, she had another client purchase options for her. In an effort to be witty, she reimbursed the client by check, scribbling in the check's memo line the words, "Blue Horseshoe," in reference to the coded language used to convey inside information in the 1987 movie Wall Street. The real joke though is the group only profited $35,000 to $73,000. https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2022/lr25470.htm

Something different

Fraudsters love to buy cars, RV’s, boats, and gold. Expensive trips to Vegas are also to be expected. But this guy bought himself a villa in Mexico. Unfortunately for him, the feds got him before he had time to slip across the border to live there. Randy Frasinelli, 66, of Scott Township, has been charged with bank fraud and money laundering for stealing over 4 million dollars in Covid-19 pandemic relief funds from the Payroll Protection Program (PPP). Don’t fret, he bought all the other necessaries also, and some artwork too. https://www.pennlive.com/news/2022/08/pa-man-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-almost-4-million-in-ppp-loans-reports.html

A politician arrested for fraud…really… no joke

A former United States Congressman from California was arrested for wire fraud, money laundering, and campaign contribution fraud. The complaint alleges he obtained $1.7 million from funds he solicited from clients and loans he got for his companies and then stole by diverting the money to “off-the-book bank accounts. If you’re bored by this newsletter take a look at the comments to this article…all 3,342 of them. https://www.yahoo.com/news/ex-congressman-california-arrested-charged-220806660.html

Metaworse, of course

TrendMicro published the report “Metaverse or Metaworse” discussing the potential for criminality in the realm of virtual reality. The report nicely explains the Metaverse and such threats that future occupants may face while spending time there. They also coin the term, at least it’s the first time I’ve heard it, “DarkVerse”. Oooooo, scary. https://documents.trendmicro.com/assets/white_papers/wp-metaverse-or-metaworse-cybersecurity-threats-against-the-internet-of-experiences.pdf

The Rest…

Teen threatens another teen, gets him and his mom arrested for large scale identity theft scheme. https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-teen-mom-identify-theft

9to5 Mac published a good tutorial on the new IOS Lockdown mode https://9to5mac.com/2022/08/19/turn-on-off-lockdown-mode-ios-16-iphone/

Apple released an urgent security update for MacOS. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT213413

Lawmakers posture for better cybersecurity by healthcare organizations. https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/3605746-lawmakers-push-for-improved-cybersecurity-in-health-sector-amid-growing-cyber-threats/

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Cool Job

Head of Global Cyber Fraud - Adobe. https://adobe.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/external_experienced/job/Austin/Head-of-Global-Cyber-Fraud-Investigations_R128759-1

Cool Tool

Use the Keyboard - a collection of keyboard shortcuts for All of the apps. https://usethekeyboard.com/

Blackbird - Search usernames across 174 different Internet sites and services. (This is a Python tool) https://github.com/p1ngul1n0/blackbird

Irrelevant

Only the best survive! Why every ketchup but Heinz went extinct. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/history-of-heinz-ketchup

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Skitt’s Law – “Any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself” or “the likelihood of an error in a post is directly proportional to the embarrassment it will cause the poster.”

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Thank You for sticking it out another week. I hope I earned your attention for yet another.

Matt

“STOP CHEATING ON YOUR FUTURE WITH YOUR PAST. IT’S OVER.” - someone better at letting go than me.