A New Email #Scam Is Making The Rounds Claiming That You Broke The Law…. Let’s Dive In And Have A Look At It

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 12, 2022 by itnerd

I haven’t done one of these in a while because to be frank, there isn’t anything new on the extortion phishing email front. But I had a reader reach out to me to bring one to my attention that is new and different.

Here’s the email that you will get. It is titled “READ OR GO TO JAIL”:

Hi, I keep the whole story short.

Your device got infected with my private trojan, it gave me access to all your files, accounts and contacts.

Check the sender of this email, I sent it from your email account.

I stole all your data and then I removed my trojan again, to not leave any traces.

I KNOW EXACTLY ABOUT YOUR ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES!

It won’t take a long time to send your data with the proof of your activities to the police.

If you want to avoid jail time, send 1400$ in Bitcoin (BTC) to my address.

You can easily buy Bitcoin (BTC), just Google: “Where to buy Bitcoin (BTC)?”.

My address is: [REDACTED]

Yes, that’s how the address looks like, just copy and paste it, the address is (CaSe-SenSitiVE).

You are given not more than 4 days after you have opened this email.

Once I get the payment, I will remove everything, be sure, I keep my promises.

Next time keep your device updated with the newest security patches.

So let’s start with the fact that it was sent from the recipients email address. This is what is known as “email spoofing”. If you want to go into weeds about how this works, click here. But scammers will use this technique to convince you that you’ve been hacked, when in fact you have not been hacked. There are ways to stop this, but it requires you to have control of your own email server to implement a number of suggestions that are listed in the article that I linked to. But even that may not solve the problem. If you want to take additional steps to protect yourself from email spoofing, talk to your hosting company to see what they can do for you.

The next thing about the email is that he infected you with a trojan and then removed it to cover his tracks after stealing your data. This is meant to prey on all the stories about companies getting hacked and data being held for ransom. While that does happen, it isn’t happening in this case as any real threat actor would have not only provided you proof that you had been hacked, but they would not have contacted you in this manner. And if you are concerned about being infected with something or getting infected with something, use a trusted antivirus application or two to make sure you are clear. Or get a trusted IT professional to look at your computer.

Now about the part about going to jail. That’s to give you an incentive to pay the $1400 in Bitcoin that this scammer wants because nobody wants to have the cops knocking on their door. I’ll also point out that there is no way for this guy to know that you paid him because Bitcoin is anonymous. So that’s another hint that he’s lying. And checking the wallet that he had in the email, there was nothing in it. Which means that either he just started this scam, or he’s having no success if it has been around for a while.

Hopefully this allows you to recognize scams when they hit your inbox so that the only person who has a happy holiday is you.

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Uber Announces Keep Ukraine Moving Donation Campaign

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 12, 2022 by itnerd

Starting today, Canadians will be able to donate through the Uber app to support the people of Ukraine. And Uber will match every donation up to $1 million. All donations will go to a charity partnering with UNITED24 to provide the Ministry of Health of Ukraine with funds for urgently needed ambulances. 

Ukraine has now endured more than nine months of horrific war since Russia’s full-scale invasion. Attacks have devastated cities, destroyed families, and unleashed a refugee crisis unlike any Europe has seen since World War II. In the days following the February invasion, Uber made a commitment to help for as long as the war continues. So as we approach the end of the year, we’re launching this new donation campaign spotlighting the bravery and selflessness of Ukrainian drivers.

Here’s snapshot of the actions that Uber taken so far:

  • Expanded Uber services to 18 cities across Ukraine
  • Provided more than 100,000 free rides to Ukrainian refugees, internally displaced families, and aid workers
  • Rolled out free transport for medical staff and patients at 100+ hospitals, and delivered medications for those in need
  • Built a customized logistics platform for United Nations relief agencies and delivered more than 220 truckloads of emergency food, medicine, and winter shelter supplies at no cost
  • Built a custom version of the Uber app to provide free on-demand transport to teams of conservationists from Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture to locate and protect thousands of artifacts of irreplaceable value to Ukrainian cultural heritage and independent national identity
  • Raised more than $5 million – and counting – in charitable donations to support Ukrainians in need

You can read more about in this blogpost here: 

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Trend Micro’s ZDI Lifts the Lid on Vulnerabilities and Diffuses Danger

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 12, 2022 by itnerd

Trend Micro Incorporated today announced the winners of its fall Pwn2Own competition held through the Zero Day Initiative. $989,750 in prizes were awarded throughout the event with the purchase of 63 unique zero days. The real-world impact if these vulnerabilities were weaponized would amount to 10x in time, data and financial loss.     

An estimated 80% of US employees are currently working from home some or all of the time, according to Gallup. However, that can expand the corporate attack surface if devices like routers, smart speakers, printers and network attached storage (NAS) are not properly secured. Vulnerabilities in household devices disclosed through Pwn2Own and Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative inform Trend Micro’s industry-leading threat intelligence that secures increasingly entangled consumer and enterprise networks.

Several waves of Deadbolt ransomware that compromised global NAS devices this year highlight the potential risk for businesses.

Attackers could also use compromised small office/home office (SOHO) connected devices as a jumping-off point for lateral movement within a network, potentially leading to a device connected to corporate resources. 

That’s why this year’s fall Pwn2Own competition featured a “SOHO Smashup” category that challenged hackers to exploit a Wi-Fi router and connected device. If contestants were able to take complete control of both devices within 30 minutes, they could earn $100,000 and 10 Master of Pwn points.

Raising awareness of the risks to SOHO equipment comes amidst government moves to enhance buyers’ confidence, in a technology where responsibility for security often falls between employee and enterprise.

In the EU, legislation is being proposed to mandate minimum security requirements of connected device vendors, while in the US there are moves afoot to launch a new labelling system akin to Energy Star.

Pwn2Own was held from 6-8 December 2022 in Trend Micro’s Toronto offices, with Trend Micro offering to reimburse up to $3,000 in travel expenses for teams participating in person. Those unable to attend were able to log in remotely.

The overall Master of Pwn winner was DEVCORE with 18.5 points and $142,500 in prizes. The top five contestants were:

To read more about the Pwn2Own Toronto event and the final competition winners, please visit: https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2022/12/9/pwn2own-toronto-2022-day-four-results-and-master-of-pwn

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Guest Post: Hisense Canada Has Recommendations For The Best Viewing Experience During The World Cup

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 12, 2022 by itnerd

It is one of the most watched sporting events in the world, and as the quarter-finals continue onto semi-finals and then to the final game, you will want to make sure your viewing experience is as good as the action on the pitch. 

The FIFA World Cup of Soccer regularly draws more than three billion viewers worldwide. The quadrennial tournament is the sport’s pinnacle event and deserves no less than the best from its fans. And Hisense Canada, official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, has some tips on shopping for the best TV for watching sports.

Hisense recommends looking for the following:

  • Laser — If you have the budget, the new generation of laser TVs are the way to go. Hisense’s Trichroma laser engine in the L9G series reaches up to 3,000 lumens of peak brightness, earning it the title of King of the Ultra Short-Throw Projectors. Laser TVs offer massive screens, with true-to-life images that exceed the standard 4K colour range. The image produced by the laser light is precise without unwanted light dispersion, meaning the image on the screen looks more natural.
  • QLED — Quantum dots are semiconductor nanocrystals that produce pure red, green and blue light. In a Hisense QLED TV, that means a display that is brighter, with sharper contrasts between the more than one billion colours it projects. The picture is pure and close to real. A TV with quantum dot technology is almost 20 times brighter than your standard computer monitor. The Hisense U78H series comes equipped with a Sports Mode feature that is automatically activated enhancing details and smoothness that will provide soccer lovers with an exquisite FIFA World Cup™ watching experience.
  • Clarity — Most TVs nowadays boast 4K resolution, but the more important feature you should be looking for is HDR — short for High-Dynamic Range, it means the TV has a massive range of colours, which appear brighter and in greater contrast, and provides more detail to the image on the screen — think seeing the blades of grass on the field swaying gently in the wind.
  • Smoothness — Soccer moves fast, and if your refresh or motion rate is low the images on the screen will blur. Look for a refresh rate of 120Hz for a crisp, clear view of the wide receiver streaking up the sideline. Also look to see if it has an MEMC chip (Motion Estimation / Motion Compensation). MEMC is used to interpolate extra images on your TV, which is a fancy way of saying it works with the refresh or motion rate to smooth out the picture and reduce the risk of blurred action on the screen. The HDR10+ feature runs a scene-by-scene adjustment sequence for brightness, colour saturation and contrast to produce an image that is far more realistic. 
  • Dolby Vision & Atmos — Working with HDR10+, they turn your TV into an entertainment powerhouse. Developed in the cinema, they provide amazing realism that you will see, hear and feel. Support multiple speakers with Atmos, transmitting sound to every corner of the room and creating a 3D theatre audio experience.
  • Sound — What you hear from the stadium is a huge part of the viewing experience in soccer. Surround yourself with the sounds of the game with a compact sound bar — big sound without taking up a lot of space, and without having to run wires all across your room. And added subwoofer will ensure you hear and feel the crunch of every hit. Absent a sound bar, or separate home theatre system, look for a TV with Dolby Atmos or dbx-tv® for a superior audio experience right from the television.

For more information, please visit hisense-canada.com.

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Silverfort announces partnership with Howden Group Cyber Insurance Provider

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 12, 2022 by itnerd

International insurance broker, Howden Group, and Unified Identity Protection leader, Silverfort, today announced a partnership to make it easier for organizations to comply with the increasingly strict identity security controls now being required in cyber insurance policies. 

With attackers taking advantage of narrowly deployed MFA solutions, and a lack of protection for non-human identities (Service Accounts) to spread ransomware, steal data and compromise critical systems, the cost of cybersecurity insurance policies has been increasing and exclusions have become stricter. To counter this, many carriers are now mandating identity security controls with greater breadth and depth.  

The partnership seeks to address this compliance need by offering Silverfort’s Unified Identity Protection solution. This will enable Howden Group’s global customer-base to extend MFA to all their sensitive resources, including previously ‘unprotectable’ ones such as legacy applications and directories, Command Line Interfaces and other admin access tools, network infrastructure, industrial OT systems and more, without the need to modify these systems. It also allows customers to discover, monitor and secure the automated Service Accounts often used by attackers in lateral movement – quickly and easily.

As a large global broker with around $30bn in Gross Written Premiums, Howden Group helps insure some of the largest organizations in the world. Silverfort will be offered to the company’s customer-base alongside a set of complimentary products designed to prevent a wide range of risks, including endpoint protection, security awareness training and more.

More information on how Silverfort and Howden Group are working together can be found here https://www.silverfort.com/silverfort-insurance-howden/. 

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Radiant Logic Strengthens Customer Commitment and Fortifies Leadership Team

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 12, 2022 by itnerd

Radiant Logic, the enterprise Identity Data Fabric company, has announced the appointment of the company’s first Chief Customer Officer (CCO) and new Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Dieter Schuller, Radiant Logic’s long-time sales leader and customer advocate, will move into his new role as CCO. Mike Price, former Senior Vice President of Americas Sales at ForgeRock, will take over as CRO.  

Dieter Schuller, Chief Customer Officer, has been instrumental in developing Radiant Logic’s customer-centric approach for 20+ years and is a key aspect of the company’s 95% retention rate across the Fortune 500 and the federal government. As CCO, Schuller will be responsible for driving outstanding customer experience and advocating for the customer across all facets of the organization, incorporating their insights into future product innovation.  

As Chief Revenue Officer, Mike Price will focus on scaling Radiant Logic’s operations to meet growth objectives while improving sales performance and delivering customer satisfaction in conjunction with the CCO. Price brings 20 years of experience in Identity and Access Management (IAM) and looks forward to helping organizations understand how an Identity Data Fabric approach can reduce organizations complexity to enable millions of dollars in savings, as according to Forrester Consulting’s Total Economic Impact study of Radiant Logic, released in October.  

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Twitter Blue Relaunches Today…. Would You Sign Up?

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 12, 2022 by itnerd

Over the weekend Twitter announced that it was relaunching Twitter Blue. Via a Tweet of course:

If you don’t want to read the entire thread, here’s the TL:DR:
  • The cost is $8 a month on the web and $11 a month through its iOS app. The higher price on iOS helps to offset the 15% to 30% cut that Apple receives from subscriptions paid through the App Store. It will be interesting to see if Apple retaliates in regards to that.
  • You get a blue checkmark.
  • Subscribers will receive a blue checkmark next to their name, but only after they verify their phone number and their account has been reviewed. Let’s see if that stops the stuff that happened the last time Elon and company tried to launch Twitter Blue. Though to be fair, the company did say that subscribers who change their username, display name, or profile photo will temporarily lose the blue checkmark until their account is reviewed again.
  • The ability to edit tweets
  • The ability to upload higher-resolution 1080p videos
  • A reader Mode for easily reading tweet threads
  • Subscribers will “eventually” see 50% fewer ads than non-subscribers, gain the ability to post longer videos, have prioritized tweets in the replies section, mentions, and search, and get early access to other new features over time. All of these perks are listed as “coming soon.”

For what it’s worth, Twitter also announced that it will begin replacing the “Official” label for brands and other notable accounts with a gold checkmark for businesses, while a gray checkmark for government and multilateral accounts will begin rolling out later in the week.

So I have to ask, would you sign up for Twitter Blue? Full disclosure: I’m not going to. And I have to wonder how much traction that this will gain as I don’t think it’s going to be enough to hit the revenue target that Elon has in mind.

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Apple “Condemned” By The House of Commons For Restricting AirDrop In China

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 12, 2022 by itnerd

A change that Apple made when they released iOS 16.1 is that they changed the functionality of AirDrop. Up until that point you had three choices:

  • Receiving off
  • Contacts Only
  • Everyone

But if you have your iPhone in China, this is what you saw AFTER iOS 16.1 hit the streets:

  • Receiving off
  • Contacts Only
  • Everyone For 10 Minutes

This was due to the fact that protestors in China were using AirDrop to anonymously and wirelessly share messages and protest literature, and even organize demonstrations, on the then-open AirDrop network. I am guessing that this got the Chinese government upset, and they went to Apple to do something about it. Which Apple clearly did.

This has led to Apple being accused of folding up like a cheap suit to the Chinese government. This despite the fact that Apple loves to use the words “human rights” in a lot of their marketing. And they’re being called out for that. For example, here in Canada The House of Commons on Wednesday unanimously passed a motion to “condemn” Apple for restricting the “Everyone” option for the AirDrop feature on its devices in China, where it was being used to get around government censors and organize protests:

By unanimous consent, it was resolved, — That, whereas,

(i) protesters in China who are fighting for basic human rights and freedoms have been using an Airdrop feature on iPhones to avoid government censors,
(ii) Apple has announced its decision to disable that feature solely for phones in China,
(iii) such a move will make it more difficult for the protesters to avoid the authoritarian restrictions on communications,
(iv) other tech giants like Google have long collaborated with the Chinese regime in its policies to control online content and communication,
the House, therefore, condemn the decision by Apple and other tech giants for their complicity in the crackdown against peaceful protesters in China.

Now when Apple releases iOS 16.2 this week, this “feature” if you want to call it that is going to be expanded to the rest of the planet. But let’s be clear here. The only reason why Apple will be doing this is to give themselves cover when it comes to how they do business in China. Tim Cook and company are clearly more interested in gaining marketshare in China than doing what is right. And they need to be held to account for that view until they change course. So while what The House of Commons did this week is a bit of a token gesture, Apple should know that they are under scrutiny. And eventually that scrutiny will become more and more problematic to their business if they aren’t careful.

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How Rogers Can Close The Gap On Their Competitors When It Comes To Their Internet Offering

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 11, 2022 by itnerd

I got an email this past week asking if Rogers was “screwed” because Bell is deploying fibre all over the place and Rogers seems to be sticking to using their existing copper cable infrastructure for their last mile delivery. Instead of answering the email with my thoughts, I decided to write this article to lay out what options Rogers has to close the gap when it comes to their competition so that they can avoid being an afterthought when it comes to Internet in Canada. And by “competition” I mean both Bell and TELUS who are rolling out fibre as fast as they can, and as a result are way ahead of Rogers in terms of what they can offer. Let’s start with option one:

  • Deploy Fibre – Everywhere: This is by far the best and the worst option that Rogers has. I say that because while it would allow them to roll out Internet services that are competitive with Bell and TELUS from a speed standpoint, this won’t happen overnight. And on top of that, fibre builds are not cheap or fast in terms of how fast you can get it into homes and light it up. Both Bell and TELUS started doing this years ago while Rogers largely has sat on their hands. And now they are kind of behind the 8-ball. Rogers to be fair has fibre in a handful of places. But their fibre footprint is tiny relative to Bell and TELUS. To be competitive Rogers has to move faster and in more places in terms of their fibre rollout.
  • Deploy DOCSIS 4.0: Because rolling out fibre can’t be done quickly, nor is it cheap, that leads us to option number two which is to deploy DOCSIS 4.0 which will give Rogers the ability to provide gigabit speeds on both the downstream and upstream sides of the connection while leveraging their existing infrastructure. Minus maybe having to either update modems via firmware or replacing them entirely. But that would be a big improvement over what they have now which is 50 Mbps upstream and up to 1.25 Gbps downstream. The reason being is that DOCSIS 4.0 promises 10 Gbps downstream and 6 Gbps upstream which will give Rogers an offering that is competitive with offering from Bell or TELUS. But in the case of Bell, they are already up to 8 Gbps upstream and downstream. Which means that they can continue to push that to faster and faster speeds that will run circles around Rogers and put Rogers back in the position where they are currently in. Which is that they aren’t competitive. Now do you need those sorts of speeds? I’ve argued that you don’t, but that’s not the point because it is great marketing for Bell that they’re faster than Rogers. As far as I am aware, Comcast is rolling out DOCSIS 4.0 next year. Thus since Rogers uses Comcast hardware, I have to assume that they will be doing the same thing.

Now if I ran Rogers, I would go all in on fibre and abandon their copper infrastructure as quickly as possible as that would give Rogers as much headroom for the future. But having listened to their most recent investors call, it’s safe to say that they will go with DOCSIS 4.0. That will put them back in the game for a period of time until Bell and/or TELUS leverages their fibre infrastructure to exceed what DOCSIS 4.0 is capable of. Then Rogers will have to reconsider what they do next. It will be interesting see how Rogers handles this situation because if they get it wrong, then they are “screwed”.

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Hundreds Of Thousands Of People Affected Due To Last Year’s COVID Booking System Data Breach

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 10, 2022 by itnerd

You might recall that there was a text message scam from last year where people who booked a COVID vaccine were getting text messages asking for all sorts of personal information. It didn’t take long for two people to get charged with being behind this scheme. And one person who was arrested was an insider as they worked for the vaccine contact centre which is part of the Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services. Once again proving that your organization’s biggest threat vector is your people. Well, the damage has been tallied and it’s not good. The breach resulted in the names and phone numbers of about 360,000 people being leaked. CBC has details:

Beginning Friday, some 360,000 people will receive notices that their personal information was part of the November 2021 data breach of the COVAXX system, the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery said in a statement Friday. 

The ministry said it had been working with the Ministry of Health, police and the Ontario’s privacy commissioner to determine the scale and impact of the breach. The ministry’s statement does not say how it occurred.

I for one would be very interested in what lessons the Ontario government learned so that this doesn’t happen again. Because 360,000 is not a small number of people to be affected by something like this. And I think that all Ontario citizens would be very interested in this information as well. People have to have trust that their information is going to be protected. And given the scale of this breach, I would be wondering if the Ontario government has the right people, tools, and controls in place to stop this from happening again.

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