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The Security box, podcast 101: Google finds Italian Spyware campaign that targets victims

Hello everyone. I just uploaded the file to the RSS feed for those who have it.

If you don’t, that’s ok. We have the download the 127.53mb file and thanks for listening!

Below, please find the show notes for the program, where you can find links to the topics that I have put together for you.

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Welcome to podcast 101 of the Security Box Podcast series. On this podcast, we did find another “Asshole of the podcast” award. We also are going to talk about Google finding something very interesting in their research department.

Asshole of the Week

This time, our Asshole comes from an article by Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security titled “Downthem” DDoS-for-Hire Boss Gets 2 Years in Prison which was quite interesting. Wondering why only two years when DDOS is quite significant and can cause a lot of headaches among what’s going on and how to fix it?

Google

This time, Google reveals sophisticated Italian spyware campaign targeting victims in Italy, Kazakhstan comes from Cyberscoop. Found this article quite interesting, and I bet you do too.

Besides that, we’ll see what the people on the Clubhouse have to say as well as possibly other things that might not be blogged or sent to the list.

Thanks for listening to the show, and we’ll see you on another edition!

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This is very funny, the geek squad sending me an email of a charge that doesn’t exist?

Hello folks,

As I woke up today, I checked mail on my phone. I spotted a very interesting emaoil coming from a gmail account saying that The Geek Squad charged me an anual charge of $425.87.

That’s funny, because I never signed up for the geek squad. Here’s the email, minus the email address.

Can anyone spot what’s wrong with this email?

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Hello dear –

This is to inform you that your following administrations has been consequently recharged according to your solicitation.

Auto Renewal Summary :-

Payment Source : Updated Nominated Payment mode
Username :

Receipt id : OI-65426178M
Amount Charged : $425.87
Total Final Cost : $425.87

Title : Geek Squad@ High level Network and Device Protection Span: 1 Year

The subscription amount of $425.87 processed successfully from the updated account funds.

This help expense will be auto charge consistently unless we get verbal consent to void/drop the charges.

If there should be an occurrence of additional explanation or to absolutely get a full discount generously contact us # {+1}-888-316-7915

Kind Regards

Alex Smith

[Geek Squad@ Service Team]

#Thank you for using Geek Squad services#

The subject line is: Order confirmation:5901847xxxx

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Very convincing right? Would anyone call this number claiming that they were wrongly charged? If so, what do you think would happen?

Let’s see who is right.

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A little late, but a big U.S. bank suffered a breach and we need to get this out

Hello everyone, welcome to another post to the blog. Today, something I had spotted but wanted to come back to, and while I was looking for something else I need to deal with in my email, I came across this bank breach I spotted.

I’ve never heard of the bank, and while it isn’t uncommon for something like this to take 6 months, it would not surprise me if the damage has already begun.

Lets make somnething clear, I don’t believe any entity can tell you whether the info was used for bad, so once you know that a problem has occurred, just be on watch. Assume that you should watch everything to make sure you aren’t going to have a problem.

The Komando article is titled Bank data breach exposes 1.5 million Social Security numbers and it was posted on the 24th and emailed out on the 25th through the mailing list.

Stay as safe a s possible!

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Google finds spyware, a little known company is involved

Here’s something that people can chew on, apparently the NSO group is not the only one that is developing spyware for “potential spying on people” according to an article I have recently read within the past week. The article is titled Google reveals sophisticated Italian spyware campaign targeting victims in Italy, Kazakhstan and it is a cyberscoop article.

This article will be our main topic for Wednesday’s Security topic for the box. It is taped on wednesdays on the mix on the independent channel.

A link to listen to the channel is available on both sites, and this topic is quite interesting.

I don’t think we’re done with this yet, as the article states there are many companies working toward this goal. Lots of linked content here, but i think i have the highlights of this one. This is going to get very interesting.

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Flight and airline scams to watch out for (No. 4 is ESPECIALLY dangerous)

Some may be traveling, some still may not. This article comes from komando.com and is of importance and I’m using the press this for wordpress to blog this one today. Better make sure you check this out as number 4 is quite interesting and something that seems to be new. Be careful out there!

The summer holiday season is inspiring cybercriminals to create flight and airline scams. Follow these tips to protect yourself.

Source: Flight and airline scams to watch out for (No. 4 is ESPECIALLY dangerous)

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Payfor gas? Better take a look at this to make sure you’re not ripped off

I know there are sighted readers that are subscribed to this blog, but there are some blind and disabled people who may pay for gas. This may be because they pay for a driver and paying for gas is part of the deal. They may assist someone who is not paid but driving on a regular basis by paying for gas.

Whoever you are, komando.com sent out an email about gas scams that will make off with your personal information. Its quite interesting what scammers will do to make off with your info, isn’t it?

Don’t fall for these gas scams at the pump is the article.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a great solution to this problem, since even the gas companies have incentives to save money, but according to what I’ve read, its cents to the galon not a percent.

At one point, at least on my Capital One account, if I were to pay for gas, I think it could’ve been 3 to 5 percent instead of the 1 percent cash back I get everywhere else. I’m not sure if that is the case now, but I know I get 1.5 percent back, and while at another site recently, the Capital One Eno said I could get 17 percent cash back.

I remember the site in question, but that’s also what this article talks about. They link to a couple of gas apps that you can use. The JRN does not know if these applications are accessible, but mostly sighted would be using them anyway.

I figured I’d pass this along as we do have a mixture of readers on here, and you never know who this could benefit. Stay safe and thanks for reading!

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Think that voice mail alert is real when its sent by email? Better look carefully

There are legitimate services that, when set up, will send you voice mail alerts by email. Livewire Entertainment is one, onebox is another, and I’m sure there are others still doing this.

In these examples, Livewire will send you an email from the domain indicating who the message is from and how long it is. If less than a certain length, the file is attached and is a wave file.

Onebox can be customized for mp3 delivery and works the same way, except that it is coming from your account.

Did you know that actors are using this type of notification too? I’ve actually seen these, and the giveaway is that I wasn’t expecting any voice mail, and in most cases, they aren’t sent from a provider that does this. It is sent from some random address.

In one other case, Philmore Voice Mail, the email is a little different. This service does allow you to send messages to your email, but you don’t get email automatically for each message. It is also sent as a link to one of their domains. The email does come from one of their domains too.

I mention this for those who are over there so you understand what you’re looking for.

In this article that I saw yesterday and will be blogging today, Komando staff talk about this clever use of convenience to trick people to give up their credentials to their Microsoft account.

The advice is the same as in past articles, using 2-factor, strong passwords, antivirus and the like.

To learn more about this new tricky method which I’ve seen, Watch for this fake voicemail notification trying to steal your Outlook password is the article title. It isn’t necessarily new, but it must be making a comeback. People aren’t necessarily looking for these and its a good reminder of what’s out there.

Stay safe!

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Work in 10 different fields? Better check this one out

While healthcare is one of the industries that are targeted in two different lists in this article, its first in the ransomware field but 8th in the fields worked in.

If you think you’re safe, better check out Work in one of these 10 fields? Scammers are targeting you to see how safe you really are.

I am not saying for one minute that the rest of us aren’t any safer, but this Komando article should make you at least take a look at your security posture and determine what needs to be done in your situation.

The steps on what to do in this article can go for everyone which includes the mentioning of two-factor otherwise known as multi-factor.

Did something catch your eye? Sound off in the comments. Thanks for reading!

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Lastpass announces passwordless authentication

Back in early June, Lastpass announced the possibility of passwordless and that they were starting to roll it out to their customers for easy access to their accounts.

The first article is Passwordless Is Possible: LastPass Gets You There Sooner. This is their announcement of what is coming and their announcement of the passwordless experience.

The second article LastPass is First Password Manager Committed to a FIDO-Supported Passwordless Future is more of a press release talking about passwordless and how its going to work.

If you missed both of these articles, you should check them out and see if Lastpass will work for you as an authentication method to your passwords. Remember that if you have more than a certain number of passwords, it becomes harder to remember them all, so if Lastpass isn’t your solution, you choose the right one. Make that choice today!

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If you get this text from your bank, ignore it! It’s malware-infested

Better check this one oout. While I catch up, this one is definitely worth reading and looking at. Know the signs.

Cybercriminals have a new way to rip you off. They’re sending malicious texts, pretending to be your bank to infect your device with malware.

Source: If you get this text from your bank, ignore it! It’s malware-infested

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Russia is starting to mess with the internet

I believe this article I found on Cyberscoop is starting to align to what I started to say when the Russia/Ukraine war started. I remember saying then that I wasn’t sure when, but I said that if Russia was capible of doing it, they’d start messing with the Internet.

The article is titled Mixed results for Russia’s aggressive Ukraine information war, experts say and it talks about how Russia is rerouting traffic from Ukraine’s infrastructure to Russia’s infrastructure and how Russia is trying to sew their political viewpoint or whatever else they want in to Ukraine by their sensorship rules they have in place.

If this is the test bed of what they’re capible of doing, then I’m sure it’ll be a matter of time before we’re affected. How much time? I can’t say and I won’t say because we don’t know.

Just be aware of what is happening, and at least check out what is happening so you’re as protected as possible. Its only going to get interesting.

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Interpol raids scammy call centers

This is going to be our second topic for today’s episode of the Security Box. The title of the Cyberscoop article is INTERPOL raids hundreds of scammy call centers in sweep and I think it is a great start to try and combat our telephone problem.

Knock on wood, no strange calls that I’m aware of have come in, but my email is full of the spam so make sure you’re paying attention.

Lots of good things here including some very interesting stats I pulled out of this for our discussion.

Thanks for reading, and make it a great day!

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Legislation that might hold some teeth?

While this may be in talking points for now, I do like the article titled Privacy legislation might provide a powerful guard against online identity fraud as written.

This article talks about how companies hold on to so much, and most of the leaks are caused by breaches already. Notification of breaches aren’t necessarily based on where you live, but where the data is stored, says the article.

Lots of linked things, and this is one of two topics for podcast 100 which will be this week’s episode of The Security Box.

Come join us!

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Don’t want to give up Internet Explorer? There are at least 10 othr gadgets to give up too

I’m looking at my email and came across an article by komando.com’s staff that talk about 10 other things you must get rid of including the recent retired Internet Explorer.

They include phones like the Iphone 5 and below, old routers, cordless phones and others.

For the entire list, please check out the article Internet Explorer is dead – Here are 10 more outdated tech devices you need to get rid of and I hope that this helps you in your endeavor to make yourself as secure as you can.

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Marshall has access, misuses it to get data and signs it as a legal request … gets arrested and charged

I’ve been contemplating how to put this in to the blog and podcast, as we start a new series I think is appropriate sometimes.

U.S. marshal used controversial cell phone location service to illegally access data, DOJ says is an article by Cyberscoop that talks about a United States Marshall who used access to cell phone data which he signed as being part of either an investigation or something that he supposedly made up so he could get the data.

The company involved said that they have security in mind, and there should be good faith within law enforcement to use the data responsibly. The system used has been discontinued for years, and it isn’t coming back.

To read more, look at the article, maybe you will agree this marshall will be our “asshole of the podcast?”

We’ll have nore soon.

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Windows Update week is here

Hello everyone, have you updated your Windows yet? While this week is Windows update week, and possibly other software as well, it may take some time for Windows to give you those updates.

The Krebs on Security article Microsoft Patch Tuesday, June 2022 Edition has details on these patches and other news around updates.

Remember that you’re computer will tell you update and restart or shut down when its time for you to update, and please apply those it is going to do. Some of these may be critical and will protect you from RCE and other potential bad things.

Thanks for reading!

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The Security box, podcast 99: Shields Up! The New normal in Cyberspace

Welcome to the Security box, podcast 99! Today, we’ve got a great podcast and podcast 10 is going to be even more interesting once we work out alll of the details. Can’t believe I’ve made it to 100 episodes of this series, thanks for coming along for the ride.

Do you have rss? The podcast is available there if you haven’t picked it up already.

Download the 111.60mb file if you don’t have RSS.

Now, without any further ado, let’s go ahead and let us put up the show notes with links to things we’re talking about.

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Welcome to the security box, podcast 99. We’re excited to bring you another great show.

First, in our chat section, we’re going to talk about KrebsOnSecurity in New Netflix Series on Cybercrime which I’ve already bookmarked as I signed up for Netflicks. I also watched another movie titled Cyber Hell. (subscription required) Movies and documentaries like these are great to get out in the community, and the Cyber Hell movie I heard of somewhere, probably on clubhouse. There’s more including one I talked about some time back, but this will get us started.

If people have things they want us to talk about during other news, we can definitely talk about it.

In our main segment, we’re going to talk about Shields Up. No, not GRC’s program, no not a submarine shield, but our shield. ‘Shields Up’: the new normal in cyberspace is our Cyberscoop article.

All this, your thoughts, comments and other things on this week’s edition of The Security box. Enjoy!

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Doggy Coin not all cracked up to be … do your research on this coin and make your own decision

Preston, a participant of this podcast as well as the Security Hour on Saturdays on the mix sent a very interesting article about Doggy Coin, one of many different types of Crypto Currencies.

Preston sent Elon Musk Slammed With a $258 Billion Lawsuit for Promoting Dogecoin (DOGE) which would be devistating to the billionaire since it has been reported that he wants to buy and change Twitter so that it is more transparent.. We’ve found out that Twitter has done some very interesting things, but I’m not going to sit and judge the company as I don’t have all the facts.

Musk has adopted the crypto currency as payment, but i doubt that anyone has it, at least nobody I know has it.

According to the article, it was supposed to be launched as a joke, but Musk and his companies threw their weight on the coin and it soared in price. He also thinks it is going to be the coin of the future on the Internet.

We’ll see about that one. Right Now, even though Bitcoin has fallen some, it still has top dog.

Last year, DOGE soared as high as $0.73, before plunging tremendously. DOGE is currently a shadow of its all-time high as it has shredded a significant percentage of its value since the beginning of this year.

Right now, the coin is at $.05 down 92 percent,. It never reached a dollar.

Important notice on the bottom of this article which we’ve stressed.

Disclaimer

The content is for informational purposes only and may include the author’s personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of TheCryptoBasic. All Financial investments, including crypto, carry significant risk, so always do your complete research before investing. Never invest money you cannot afford to lose; the author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your financial loss or gains.

Please check this article out, and make this decision on your own whether you want to invest in this or not. It talks more about what Doggy coin is, I really have no idea what it is, only heard of it once, years ago.

The JRN has no crypto and can’t give advice on what to do. Check with a knowledgable investor.

Thanks so much for reading! Stay safe if you invest in Crypto Currency.

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Chinese hackers are going after American routers – How to protect yours

Here’s something from Kim I’m spotting in my email. I want to get this out quickly.

A new cybersecurity investigation once again proves why keeping your router’s firmware up to date is just so important.

Source: Chinese hackers are going after American routers – How to protect yours

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Shields Up! How long do we need to have our guard up?

So, this week, we’re going to talk about an article titled ‘Shields Up’: the new normal in cyberspace which is linked quite a bit.

There are some interesting discussions on how long we need to “keep our shields up” although they say that the government needs to play a part.

I believe the government is part of the problem, they’re giving us advice, yet they can’t keep themselves secure?

I urge people to check out this article, and lets come up with things we can do. As said in other cyber rooms, it should be everyone’s responsibility with cybersecurity, so let’s go!

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