Meddling

It would’ve worked, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!

There are 617 posts filed in Meddling (this is page 49 of 62).

Curbside parking at airports

RDU Airport

My usual way home from work, Interstate 40, was backed up this afternoon so I took a detour through RDU Airport. As I drove past the terminal, I watched as an airport police officer stridently whistled away a car that was being parked at the curbside.

As I passed the terminal, I got to thinking at how ludicrous it is for officers to shoo people away from the curb. I mean, if a truck bomb parks there it doesn’t really matter if it’s for five hours or five tenths of a second: the result is the same. And if someone wants to create terror of that nature there are plenty of other places with large crowds.
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Google fights Gmail hackers

Yesterday I received a strange email sent to a neighborhood list by a neighbor. The subject was “Modesty Marquita” (which sounds like a stripper name, actually) and all that was in the body of the message was a URL to a webserver in Brazil. I searched the web for any references to either of these items and didn’t turn up anything unusual, so I wrote it off.

This evening made me change my mind, however. Another friend (Let’s call her Anne) sent out four similar emails. Same M.O.: a random person’s name in the subject line and a web URL in the body. That’s when I figured out something is not right in Gmail land.

The kicker was this message below (I’ve changed account data). This message was sent from one Gmail account to another one: in other words it never left Google’s network:
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McDonald’s tricky Facebook campaign

A friend just visited a McDonald’s page on Facebook which subsequently spammed all of her Facebook friends without her knowledge, she says. The message sent to her friends said this:

Jill became a fan of Official FREE McDonald’s Day! Free Big Macs on us all day! on Facebook and suggested you become a fan too.

This is just another reminder of the “information leaks” present in Facebook and other social networking sites. Never post anything that you wouldn’t want to disclose to the world.

Chinese hacking: the Shadow network

This morning’s paper told of a massive cyber-espionage network being uncovered, with most of it leading back to China. The report, called Shadows in the Cloud: An investigation into cyber espionage 2.0 is quite revealing:

Complex cyber espionage network – Documented evidence of a cyber espionage network that compromised government, business, and academic computer systems in India, the Office of the Dalai Lama, and the United Nations. Numerous other institutions, including the Embassy of Pakistan in the United States, were also compromised. Some of these institutions can be positively identified, while others cannot.

Theft of classified and sensitive documents – Recovery and analysis of exfiltrated data, including one document that appears to be encrypted diplomatic correspondence, two documents marked “SECRET”, six as “RESTRICTED”, and five as “CONFIDENTIAL”.

Evidence of Collateral Compromise – A portion of the recovered data included visa applications submitted to Indian diplomatic missions in Afghanistan.

Command-and-control infrastructure that leverages cloud-based social media services – Documentation of a complex and tiered command and control infrastructure, designed to maintain persistence. The infrastructure made use of freely available social media systems that include Twitter, Google Groups, Blogspot, Baidu Blogs, blog.com and Yahoo! Mail.

Links to Chinese hacking community – Evidence of links between the Shadow network and two individuals living in Chengdu, PRC to the underground hacking community in the PRC.

Read more of the report here.

Scam call from 724-978-8989

Some folks on the Internet are reporting a scam phone call from 724-978-8989, claiming the person called has won $3000 travel dollars or somesuch. I just got a call from the number on my mobile and never heard a thing. For the folks who are finding this from an Internet search, the number shown on your CallerID has been faked. Don’t attempt to drive to Pennsylvania to exact revenge.

It looks like the phone scammers are still at it. My blog has been getting many hits lately for Tuscany Industries. And many searches for warranty scams. Peruse my Meddling category for more of my sleuthing.

876-561-5492 and 876-559-3893

I got two mystery calls to my mobile phone today, one from 876-561-5492 and another from 876-559-3893. I didn’t answer either one, but I suppose that’s not the point of the calls. The point is for me to see that I missed the calls and attempt to call them back!

You see, the 876 area code isn’t an American area code, but a Jamaican one. Calls to Jamaica, even with my dirt-cheap VoIP calling plan, are $0.26 per minute! So some unsuspecting person sees that they missed a call from an 876 number, calls it back, and gets strung along during the call, thinking that they’re paying domestic rates while all along they’re paying through the teeth for the call.

AT&T has a nice page that discusses 876 area code calls. Read it and take its advice: don’t call back numbers you don’t know.

Asterisk hacking

I had reason to check my Asterisk phone server logs today and noticed some script kiddies have been knocking on its door. Apparently an exploit kit exists that hacks into Asterisk PBXs and allows you to register as a phone on these systems. Way back in 2002 I put some firewall rules in place which allowed fairly wide open access to my Asterisk system. They had been there so long that I never revisited them, but on the other hand I never had much reason to.

I’m not quite sure what the point is as VoIP makes calling any number in the world virtually free, and VoIP-to-VoIP calls are completely free. Where’s the incentive to hack? Heck, back in my day when ten-cents-per-minute long distance was considered a bargain there were plenty of tools and methods to get free calls. Not that I ever tried them, mind you, but I knew a number of people who did (Apple Computer might not exist today if it weren’t for this kind of petty larceny).
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FBI hangs anthrax case on Bruce Ivans

So, yesterday the FBI announced it was closing its investigation on the 2001 anthrax attacks, saying it was convinced that it was the work of Dr. Bruce Ivins. The report the FBI released paints a picture of Ivins as a man with mental problems, in effect posthumously convicting a man who will never get a trial. Anytime someone gets convicted of something after they can’t defend themselves my BS detectors go on high alert. Looks like my initial hunch about the case is being proven out.

The anthrax attacks are a curious event in our history. Coming on the heels of the September 11th attacks, conservative hawks like to conveniently forget these attacks whenever they spout the fallacy that America’s response to the 9/11 attacks kept more terrorist attacks from taking place, as if mailing deadly pathogens to United States Senators doesn’t qualify as terrorism. In my mind, the FBI’s report shows all the signs of an investigation not really wanting to know where the facts lead, perhaps because doing so would raise uncomfortable questions best left unasked.
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Tuscany Industries calling again?

Judging by the huge spike in Internet searches bringing people to my website, it looks as if the scammers hiding behind the fake “Tuscany Industries” Caller ID are back in action. I chronicled my experience with them two years ago in a number of posts, which have now bubbled up to the top of the Google search for Tuscany Industries.

Since the calls for me personally have stopped, I’m not sure what scam is being run now. Is it the “lower your credit card debt” or “OMG your car’s warranty is expiring!!11!” Either way, it doesn’t matter: it serves as a wake up call to me to proceed with my lawsuit against these scumbags.

Yes, I have a good idea where they are. And yes, I’m pissed enough to get a piece of them. Let’s get going.

If you’ve gotten a call from “Tuscany Industries” and interacted with the lowlifes on the other end, drop me a comment here and let me know the scoop. The more info I can gather for the lawsuit, the better.