Friday, February 14, 2020

What I'm Reading 2/14/2020 - Huawei indicted and North Korea named in malware campaign

To squeeze every penny out of these inner-city goldmines, scammers have started outsourcing property management to ill-equipped call centres in the Philippines. The scammers call it “systemising”, a process of grabbing as many apartments as possible, filling them with identikit furniture, taking professional-looking photographs and then using every trick in the book to turn them into lucrative investments. Some of these tricks, though morally dubious, are perfectly legal. But others breach both Airbnb’s policies and local planning laws, while also putting the safety of guests at risk. As Vice found in October 2019, Airbnb is littered with fake and downright dodgy listings. But in London, where Airbnb enforces an annual 90-day limit on all “entire homes” listed on its platform, scammers have made a mockery of lax enforcement both by regulators and Airbnb itself, by turning entire new-build apartment blocks into de facto hotels designed for the short-term rental market. And the problem is far worse than anyone realises.
LA Times -  Ratification of Equal Rights Amendment runs into opposition — from Trump, sure, but Ruth Bader Ginsburg? -
And on Monday, Ginsburg spoke at the Georgetown University Law Center and repeated her view that the recent ratifications came too late. “There is too much controversy about latecomers,” she said in response to a question. The votes by Virginia, Illinois and Nevada came “long after the deadline passed.... I would like to see a new beginning. I’d like it to start over.”
Al Jazeera - Barr: Trump tweets on cases make it 'impossible' to do my job -
"I'm happy to say that, in fact, the president has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case," Barr said in the interview. "However, to have public statements and tweets made about the department, about our people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department, and about judges before whom we have cases, make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in the department that we're doing our work with integrity."
 BBC - Amazon wins injunction in US 'Jedi' contract fight -
Amazon had asked the court to block the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, known as Jedi, which is worth up to $10bn over 10 years. The company is also seeking to question Mr Trump as part of the lawsuit.
On Thursday, Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith of the US Federal Claims Court agreed to the first demand, ordering the US to halt its Jedi activities, which are aimed at making the US Defence Department more technologically agile.  
Reuters - U.S. accuses Huawei of stealing trade secrets, assisting Iran -
The new trade secret theft charges relate to internet router source code, cellular antenna technology, and robotics.
For example, beginning in 2000, Huawei and its subsidiary Futurewei Technologies Inc are accused of misappropriating operating system source code for internet routers, commands used to communicate with the routers, and operating system manuals, from a company in Northern California. Futurewei was added as a defendant in the latest indictment.  
 Indictment

Bloomberg Law - Apple on Hook for Millions for Off-the-Clock Bag Searches -
Apple Inc. violated California law when it failed to pay employees for time they spend waiting for mandatory bag and iPhone searches at the end of their shifts, the California Supreme Court ruled.
The Feb. 13 decision is the latest in the battle over pay for off-the-clock work and marks the California high court’s third wage and hour opinion in two years interpreting the state’s employee-protective wage requirements. Apple won at the trial level in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which said employees of the Cupertino, Calif., tech company chose to bring bags to work and thus subject themselves to the company’s search policy. On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit turned to the state court to interpret California law.
CNET - Google keeps a scary amount of data on you. Here's how to find and delete it -
We're going to cut through all the clutter and show you how to access the private data Google has on you, as well as how to delete some or all of it. Then we're going to help you find the right balance between your privacy and the Google services you rely on by choosing settings that limit Google's access to your information without impairing your experience.
Cyberscoop - Pentagon, FBI, DHS jointly expose a North Korean hacking effort -
The Pentagon, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security have publicly identified a North Korean hacking campaign as part of a broad information sharing program intended to warn industry against adversarial hacking, CyberScoop has learned.
The public disclosure includes details about at least seven different malware samples linked with North Korean hacking efforts. The samples point to cyber-espionage activities carried out by an actor the U.S. refers to as Hidden Cobra, which officials have previously associated with the North Korean government. The files detailed use tools meant to steal data, create and delete files and capture screenshots, according to a person who has viewed the U.S. malware analysis report (MAR).
 CISA Alert - North Korean Malicious Cyber Activity
Security Boulevard -  Advanced Attack Groups Increasingly Threaten North American Electric Utilities  -
“At this time, Dragos has observed adversary activity targeting utility enterprise networks, which may enable initial intrusion and reconnaissance at those entity sites. The data gathered and access achieved could facilitate preliminary steps for a potentially disruptive event within the OT environment. Dragos has also observed adversary reconnaissance inside ICS networks,” the report continued.
I believe this report was mentioned a couple days ago in another post also.  Don't panic.  It's not the impending apocalypse yet.



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