Oct 15, 2022
Can You Secure Security Cameras? The Coming Green Energy Nightmare - Email Scams Hitting Businesses and Lonely Hearts
Scams…
Eight questions to ask yourself before getting a security camera
https://www.welivesecurity.com/2022/10/03/8-questions-ask-yourself-getting-home-security-camera/
Security cameras were once the preserve of the rich and famous. Now anyone can get their hands on one thanks to technological advances. The advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) has created a significant new market – for manufacturers of devices like connected doorbells and baby monitors and more sophisticated whole-of-property systems. Connected to home Wi-Fi networks, these devices allow owners to watch live video footage, record video for later, and receive alerts when out of the house.
Yet these same features can also expose households to new risks if the camera is compromised and the footage is leaked. Not all vendors have as big a focus on security and privacy as they should. That means you need to ask the right questions before starting.
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Romance scammer and BEC fraudster sent to prison for 25 years
Elvis Eghosa Ogiekpolor was jailed for 25 years in Atlanta, Georgia, for running a cybercrime group that scammed close to $10,000,000 in under two years from individuals and businesses caught up in the so-called romance and BEC scams.
BEC is short for business email compromise, an umbrella term for a form of online scam in which the attackers acquire login access to email accounts inside a company so that the fraudulent emails they send don’t just seem to come from the company they’re attacking, but do come from there.
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How a deepfake Mark Ruffalo scammed half a million dollars from a lonely heart
The Asahi Shimbun reports that 74-year-old Manga artist Chikae Ide received an unsolicited message via Facebook in February 2018 from somebody claiming to be Ruffalo.
With help from some translation software, an initially skeptical Ide responded to the Hollywood actor, attaching a photograph of herself. An American friend of Ide subsequently questioned whether the person claiming to be Ruffalo was genuine, noting that he wrote: “like somebody who has not learned English.”
But, says Ide, a 30-second video call blew away any suspicions.
“I’m sure it was Mark himself behind the screen chatting with me,” Ide said.
Energy…
The Coming Green Electricity Nightmare
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/10/02/the-coming-green-electricity-nightmare/
What this net-zero transition would require:
How many millions of wind turbines, billions of solar panels, billions of EVs, backup batteries, millions of transformers, thousands of miles of transmission lines – sprawling across millions of acres of wildlife habitat, scenic and agricultural lands, and people’s once-placid backyards?
To cite just one example, just the 2,500 wind turbines needed for New York electricity (30,000 megawatts) would require nearly 110,000 tons of copper – which would necessitate mining, crushing, processing, and refining 25 million tons of copper ore … after removing some 40 million tons of overlying rock to reach the ore bodies. Multiply that times 50 states – and the entire world – plus transmission lines.
Spooks…
FLASHBACK: CIA Sabotaged Soviet Pipeline to Europe in 1982 - US Software Caused Massive Explosion in Siberian Pipeline Seen From Space
Back in 1982, the CIA sabotaged a Soviet pipeline in Siberia. US software caused a gas pipeline explosion so large it could be seen in space. The Americans did not want the Europeans to purchase Soviet gas.
In January 1982, President Ronald Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the Soviet Union through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions, including software that later triggered a massive explosion in a Siberian natural gas pipeline, according to a memoir by a Reagan White House official.
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Former NSA Employee Faces Death Penalty for Selling Secrets
When he left his job as an information systems security designer with the National Security Agency, Jareh Sebastian Dalke allegedly took a few classified documents with him. Stealing — and then attempting to sell — those secret government documents could land the Colorado Springs man on death row.
Dalke has been charged with trying to sell those government secrets to a foreign government. But, according to a Department of Justice affidavit, the sale went bust when it turned out the potential buyer Dalke believed was an emissary from a foreign nation was an undercover FBI agent.
Hackers…
Ransomware 3.0: The Next Frontier
https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/ransomware-3-the-next-frontier
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Internet Crime Complaint Center received 3,729 complaints identified as ransomware in 2021, up 82% from just two years prior and accelerating. According to the Department of Treasury, the top 10 ransomware gangs raked at least $5.2 billion in extortion payments. Ransomware's growth and sheer scale captured leaders' attention in policy and business, but we must keep our eye on how its operators might adapt and evolve to protect their profits.
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Russian Hackers Take Aim at Kremlin Targets
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/russian-hackers-take-aim-at/
According to a new report, Russian threat actors have begun launching cyber-attacks at targets inside their country in retaliation for what they see as a needless war with Ukraine.
The Kyiv Post claimed to have spoken to members of the National Republican Army (NRA), a Russian hacking outfit working towards overthrowing the Putin regime.
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Relentless Russian Cyberattacks on Ukraine Raise Important Policy Questions
The cyber picture worsened as the war went on because critical infrastructure and systems used to support the war effort ended up in the crosshairs.
Soon after the onset of the physical invasion, Microsoft found that it could also correlate cyberattacks in the critical infrastructure sector with kinetic events. For example, as the Russian campaign moved around the Donbas region in March, researchers observed coordinated wiper attacks against transportation logistics systems used for military movement and the delivery of humanitarian aid.
And they are targeting nuclear facilities in Ukraine with cyber activity to soften a target before military incursions, which Microsoft researchers have consistently seen throughout the war.