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  • phenomlabundefined

    Think 10,000 hours makes an expert? It doesn't!

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    expert.webp
    One thing I’ve seen a lot of over my career is the “expert” myth being touted on LinkedIn and Twitter. Originating from psychologist K. Anders Ericsson who studied the way people become experts in their fields, and then discussed by Malcolm Gladwell in the book, “Outliers“, “to become an expert it takes 10,000 hours (or approximately 10 years) of deliberate practice”. This paradigm (if you can indeed call it that) has been adopted by several so called “experts” - mostly those within the Information Security and GDPR fields. This article isn’t about GDPR (for once), but mostly those who consider themselves “experts” by virtue of the acronym. Prior to it’s implementation, nobody should have proclaimed themselves a GDPR “expert”. You cannot be an expert in something that wasn’t actually legally binding until May 25 2018, nor can you have sufficient time invested to be an expert since inception in my view. GDPR is a vast universe, and you can’t claim to know all of it.

    Consultant ? Possibly, yes. Expert ? No.

    The associated sales campaign isn’t much better, and can be aligned to the children’s book “Chicken Licken”. For those unfamiliar with this concept, here is a walkthrough. I’m sure you’ll understand why I choose a children’s story in this case, as it seems to fit the bill very well. What I’ve seen over the last 12 months had been nothing short of amazing - but not in the sense of outstanding. I could align GDPR here to the PPI claims furore - for anyone unfamiliar with what this “uprising” is, here’s a synopsis.

    The “expert” fallacy

    Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) is the insurance sold alongside credit cards, loans and other finance agreements to ensure payments are made if the borrower is unable to make them due to sickness or unemployment. The PPI scandal has its roots set back as far as 1998, although compensatory payments did not officially start until 2011 once the review and court appeal process was completed. Since the deadline for PPI claims has been announced as August 2019, the campaign has become intensively aggressive, with, it would seem, thousands of PPI “experts”. Again, I would question the authenticity of such a title. It seems that everyone is doing it, therefore, it must be easy to attain (a bit like the CISSP then). I witnessed the same shark pool of so called “experts” before, back in the day when Y2K was the latest buzzword on everyone’s lips. Years of aggressive selling campaigns and similarly, years of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt - more effectively known as complete bulls…) caused an unprecedented spike that allowed companies and consultants (several of whom had never been heard of before) to suddenly appear out of the woodwork and assume the identity of “experts” in this field. In reality, it’s not possible to be a subject matter expert in a particular field or niche market unless you have extensive experience. If you compare a weapons expert to a GDPR “expert”, you’ll see just how weak this paradigm actually is. A weapons expert will have years of knowledge in a field, and could probably tell you which gun discharged a bullet just by looking at the expended shell casing. I very much doubt a self styled GDPR expert can tell you what will happen in the event of an unknown scenario around the framework and the specific legal rights (in terms of the individual who the data belongs to) and implications for the institution affected. How can they when nobody has even been exposed to such a scenario before ? This makes a GDPR expert in my view about as plausible as a Brexit expert specialising in Article 50.

    What defines an expert ?

    The focal point here is in the comparison. A weapons expert can be given a gun and a sample of shell casings, then asked to determine if the suspected weapon actually fired the supplied ammunition or not. Using a process of proven identification techniques, the expert can then determine if the gun provided is indeed the origin. This information is derived by using established identity techniques from the indentations and markings in the shell casing created by the gun barrel from which the bullet was expelled, velocity, angle, and speed measurements obtained from firing the weapon. The impact of the bullet and exit damage is also analysed to determine a match based on material and critical evidence. Given the knowledge and experience level required to produce such results, how long do you think it took to reach this unrivalled plateau ? An expert isn’t solely based on knowledge. It’s not solely based on experience either. In fact, it’s a deep mixture of both. Deep in the sense of the subject matter comprehension, and how to execute that same understanding along with real life experience to obtain the optimum result. Here’s an example   An information technology expert should be able to

    Identify and eliminate potential bottlenecks Address security concerns, Design high availability Factor in extensible scalability Consider risk to adjacent and disparate technology and conduct analysis Ensure that any design proposal meets both the current criteria and beyond Understand the business need for technology and be able to support it

    If I leveraged external consultancy for a project, I’d expect all of the above and probably more from anyone who labels themselves as an expert - or for that fact, an architect. Sadly, I’ve been disappointed on numerous occasions throughout my career where it became evident very quickly that the so called expert (who I hasten to add is earning more an hour than I do in a day in most cases) hired for his “expertise and superior knowledge” in fact appears to know far less than I do about the same topic.

    How long does it really take to become an expert ?

    I’ve been in the information technology and security field since I was 16. I’m now 47, meaning 31 years experience (well, 31 as this year isn’t over yet). If you consider that experience is acquired during an 8 hour day, and used the following equation to determine the amount of years needed to reach 10,000 hours

    10000 / 8 / 365 = 3.4246575342 - for the sake of simple mathematics, let’s say 3.5 years.

    However, in the initial calculation, it’s 10 years (using the basis of 90 minutes invested per day) - making the expert title when aligned to GDPR even more unrealistic. As the directive was adopted on the 27 April 2016, the elapsed time period isn’t even enough to carry the first figure cited at 3.5 years, irrespective of the second. The reality here is that no amount of time invested in anything is going to make your an expert if you do not possess the prerequisite skills and a thorough understanding based on previous events in order to supplement and bolster the initial investment. I could spend 10,000 practicing a particular sport - yet effectively suck at it because my body (If you’ve met me, you’d know why) isn’t designed for the activity I’m requesting it to perform. Just because I’ve spent 10,000 hours reading about something doesn’t make me an expert by any stretch of the imagination. If I calculated the hours spanned over my career, I would arrive at the below. I’m basing this on an 8 hour day when in reality, most of my days are in fact much longer.

    31 x 365 x 8 = 90,520 hours

    Even when factoring in vacation based on 4 weeks per year (subject to variation, but I’ve gone for the mean average),

    31 x 28 X 8 = 6,944 hours to subtract

    This is only fair as you are not (supposed to be) working when on holiday. Even with this subtraction, the total is still 83,578 hours. Does my investment make me an expert ? I think so, yes - based on the fact that 31 years dedicated to one area would indicate a high level of experience and professional standard - both of which I constantly strive to maintain. Still think 10,000 hours invested makes you an expert ? You decide ! What are your views around this ?

  • phenomlabundefined

    How to destroy a community before it's even built

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    phenomlabundefined

    @crazycells I guess the worst part for me was the trolling - made so much worse by the fact that the moderators allowed it to continue, insisting that the PeerLyst coming was seeing an example by allowing the community to “self moderate” - such a statement being completely ridiculous, and it wasn’t until someone else other than myself pointed out that all of this toxic activity could in fact be crawled by Google, that they decided to step in and start deleting posts.

    In fact, it reached a boiling point where the CEO herself had to step in and post an article stating their justification for “self moderation” which simply doesn’t work.

    The evidence here speaks for itself.

  • phenomlabundefined

    AI... A new dawn, or the demise of humanity ?

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    phenomlabundefined

    https://news.sky.com/story/ai-poses-growing-threat-to-next-general-election-warns-uk-cyber-security-agency-13007659

  • phenomlabundefined

    Security, Or Just Obscurity?

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    phenomlabundefined

    When you look at your servers or surrounding networks, what exactly do you see ? A work of art, perhaps ? Sadly, this is anything but the picture painted for most networks when you begin to look under the hood. What I’m alluding to here is that beauty isn’t skin deep - in the sense that neat cabling resembling art from the Sistine Chapel, tidy racks, and huge comms rooms full of flashing lights looks appealing from the eye candy perspective and probably will impress clients, but in several cases, this is the ultimate wolf in sheep’s clothing. Sounds harsh ? Of course it does, but with good intentions and reasoning. There’s not a single person responsible for servers and networks on this planet who will willingly admit that whilst his or her network looks like a masterpiece to the untrained eye, it’s a complete disaster in terms of security underneath.

    In reality, it’s quite the opposite. Organisations often purchase bleeding edge infrastructure as a means of leveraging the clear technical advantages, enhanced security, and competitive edge it provides. However, under the impressive start of the art ambience and air conditioning often lies an unwanted beast. This mostly invisible beast lives on low-hanging fruit, will be tempted to help itself at any given opportunity, and is always hungry. For those becoming slightly bewildered at this point, there really isn’t an invisible beast lurking around your network that eats fruit. But, with a poorly secured infrastructure, there might as well be. The beast being referenced here is an uninvited intruder in your network. A bad actor, threat actor, bad guy, criminal…. call it what you want (just don’t use the word hacker) can find their way inside your network by leveraging the one thing that I’ve seen time and time again in literally every organisation I ever worked for throughout my career - the default username and password. I really can’t stress the importance of changing this on new (and existing) network equipment enough, and it doesn’t stop at this either.

    Changing the default username and password is about 10% of the puzzle when it comes to security and basic protection principles. Even the most complex credentials can be bypassed completely by a vulnerability (or in some cases, a backdoor) in ageing firmware on switches, firewalls, routers, storage arrays, and a wealth of others - including printers (which incidentally make an ideal watering hole thanks to the defaults of FTP, HTTP, SNMP, and Telnet, most (if not all of) are usually always on. As cheaper printers do not have screens like their more expensive copier counterparts (the estate is reduced to make the device smaller and cheaper), any potential criminal can hide here and not be detected - often for months at a time - arguably, they could live in a copier without you being aware also. A classic example of an unknown exploit into a system was the Juniper firewall backdoor that permitted full admin access using a specific password - regardless of the one set by the owner. Whilst the Juniper exploit didn’t exactly involve a default username and password as such (although this particular exploit was hard-coded into the firmware, meaning that any “user” with the right coded password and SSH access remotely would achieve full control over the device), it did leverage the specific vulnerability in the fact that poorly configured devices could have SSH configured as accessible to 0.0.0.0/0 (essentially, the entire planet) rather than a trusted set of IP addresses - typically from an approved management network.

    We all need to get out of the mindset of taking something out of a box, plugging it into our network, and then doing nothing else - such as changing the default username and password (ideally disabling it completely and replacing it with a unique ID) or turning off access protocols that we do not want or need. The real issue here is that today’s technology standards make it simple for literally anyone to purchase something and set it up within a few minutes without considering that a simple port scan of a subnet can reveal a wealth of information to an attacker - several of these tools are equipped with a default username and password dictionary that is leveraged against the device in question if it responds to a request. Changing the default configuration instead of leaving it to chance can dramatically reduce the attack landscape in your network. Failure to do so changes “plug and play” to “ripe for picking”, and its those devices that perform seemingly “minor” functions in your network that are the easiest to exploit - and leverage in order to gain access to neighbouring ancillary services. Whilst not an immediate gateway into another device, the compromised system can easily give an attacker a good overview of what else is on the same subnet, for example.

    So how did we arrive at the low hanging fruit paradigm ?

    It’s simple enough if you consider the way that fruit can weigh down the branch to the point where it is low enough to be picked easily. A poorly secured network contains many vulnerabilities that can be leveraged and exploited very easily without the need for much effort on the part of an attacker. It’s almost like a horse grazing in a field next to an orchard where the apples hang over the fence. It’s easily picked, often overlooked, and gone in seconds. When this term is used in information security, a common parallel is the path of least resistance. For example, a pickpocket can acquire your wallet without you even being aware, and this requires a high degree of skill in order to evade detection yet still achieve the primary objective. On the other hand, someone strolling down the street with an expensive camera hanging over their shoulder is a classic example of the low hanging fruit synopsis in the sense that this theft is based on an opportunity that wouldn’t require much effort - yet with a high yield. Here’s an example of how that very scenario could well play out.

    Now, as much as we’d all like to handle cyber crime in this way, we can’t. It’s illegal 🙂

    What isn’t illegal is prevention. 80% of security is based on best practice. Admittedly, there is a fair argument as to what exactly is classed as “best” these days, although it’s a relatively well known fact that patching the Windows operating system for example is one of the best ways to stamp out a vulnerability - but only for that system that it is designed to protect against. Windows is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to vulnerabilities - it’s not just operating systems that suffer, but applications, too. You could take a Windows based IIS server, harden it in terms of permitted protocols and services, plus install all of the available patches - yet have an outdated version of WordPress running (see here for some tips on how to reduce that threat), or often even worse, outdated plugins that allow remote code execution. The low hanging fruit problem becomes even more obvious when you consider breaches such as the well-publicised Mossack Fonseca (“Panama Papers”). What became clear after an investigation is that the attackers in this case leveraged vulnerabilities in the firm’s WordPress and Joomla public facing installations - this in fact led to them being able to exploit an equally vulnerable mail server by brute-forcing it.

    So what should you do ? The answer is simple. It’s harvest time.

    If there is no low-hanging fruit to pick, life becomes that much more difficult for any attacker looking for a quick “win”. Unless determined, it’s unlikely that your average attacker is going to spend a significant amount of time on a target (unless it’s Fort Knox - then you’ve have to question the sophistication) then walk away empty handed with nothing to show for the effort. To this end, below are my top recommendations. They are not new, non-exhaustive, and certainly not rocket science - yet they are surprisingly missing from the “security 101” perspective in several organisations.

    Change the default username and password on ALL infrastructure. It doesn’t matter if it’s not publicly accessible - this is irrelevant when you consider the level of threats that have their origins from the inside. If you do have to keep the default username (in other words, it can’t be disabled), set the lowest possible access permissions, and configure a strong password. Close all windows - in this case, lock down protocols and ports that are not essential - and if you really do need them open, ensure that they are restricted Deploy MFA (or at least 2FA) to all public facing systems and those that contain sensitive or personally identifiable information Deploy adequate monitoring and logging techniques, using a sane level of retention. Without any way of forensic examination, any bad actor can be in and out of your network well before you even realise a breach may have taken place. The only real difference is that without decent logging, you have no way of confirming or even worse, quantifying your suspicion. This can spell disaster in regulated industries. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot. Ensure all Windows servers and PC’s are up to date with the latest patches. The same applies to Linux and MAC systems - despite the hype, they are vulnerable to an extent (but not in the same way as Windows), although attacks are notoriously more difficult to deploy and would need to be in the form of a rootkit to work properly Do not let routers, firewalls, switches, etc “slip” in terms of firmware updates. Keep yourself and your team regularly informed and updated around the latest vulnerabilities, assess their impact, and most importantly, plan an update review. Not upgrading firmware on critical infrastructure can have a dramatic effect on your overall security. Lock down USB ports, CD/DVD drives, and do not permit access to file sharing, social media, or web based email. This has been an industry standard for years, but you’d be surprised at just how many organisations still have these open and yet, do not consider this a risk. Reduce the attack vector by segmenting your network using VLANS. For example, the sales VLAN does not need to (and shouldn’t need to) connect directly to accounting etc. In this case, a ransomware or malware outbreak in sales would not traverse to other VLANS, therefore, restricting the spread. A flat network is simple to manage, but a level playing field for an attacker to compromise if all the assets are in the same space. Don’t use an account with admin rights to perform your daily duties. There’s no prizes for guessing the level of potential damage this can cause if your account is compromised, or you land up with malware on your PC Educate and phish your users on a continual basis. They are the gateway directly into your network, and bypassing them is surprisingly easy. You only have to look at the success of phishing campaigns to realise that they are (and always will be) the weakest link in your network. Devise a consistent security and risk review framework. Conducting periodic security reviews is always a good move, and you’d be surprised at just what is lurking around on your network without your knowledge. There needn’t be a huge budget for this. There are a number of open source projects and platforms that make this process simple in terms of identification, but you’ll still need to complete the “grunt” work in terms of remediation. I am currently authoring a framework that will be open source, and will share this with the community once it is completed. Conduct regular governance and due diligence on vendors - particularly those that handle information considered sensitive (think GDPR). If their network is breached, any information they hold around your network and associated users is also at risk. Identify weak or potential risk areas within your network. Engage with business leaders and management to raise awareness around best practice, and information security. Perform breach simulation, and engage senior management in this exercise. As they are the fundamental core of the business function, they also need to understand the risk, and more importantly, the decisions and communication that is inevitable post breach.

    There is no silver bullet when it comes to protecting your network, information, and reputation. However, the list above will form the basis of a solid framework.

    Let’s not be complacent - let’s be compliant.

  • phenomlabundefined

    Changing Passwords Regularly Actually Weakens Security

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    phenomlabundefined

    1631812610135-security1.webp
    The recent high profile breaches impacting organisations large and small are a testament to the fact that no matter how you secure credentials, they will always be subject to exploit. Can a password alone ever be enough ? in my view, it’s never enough. The enforced minimum should be at least with a secondary factor. Regardless of how “secure” you consider your password to be, it really isn’t in most cases – it just “complies” with the requirement being enforced.

    Here’s classic example. We take the common password of “Welcome123” and put it into a password strength checker
    1564764162-304322-password1.png
    According to the above, it’s “strong”. Actually, it isn’t. It’s only considered this way because it meets the complexity requirements, with 1 uppercase letter, at least 8 characters, and numbers. What’s also interesting is that a tool sponsored by Dashlane considers the same password as acceptable, taking supposedly 8 months to break
    1564764192-579936-password2.png
    How accurate is this ? Not accurate at all. The password of “Welcome123” is in fact one of the passwords contained in any penetration tester’s toolkit – and, by definition, also used by cyber criminals. As most of this password combination is in fact made up of a dictionary word, plus sequential numbers, it would take less than a second to break this rather than the 8 months reported above. Need further evidence of this ? Have a look at haveibeenpwned, which will provide you with a mechanism to test just how many times “Welcome123” has appeared in data breaches
    1564764241-350631-hibp.png

    Why are credentials so weak ?

    My immediate response to this is that for as long as humans have habits, and create scenarios that enable them to easily remember their credentials, then this weakness will always exist. If you look at a sample taken from the LinkedIn breach, those passwords that occupy the top slots are arguably the least secure, but the easiest to remember from the human perspective. Passwords such as “password” and “123456” may be easy for users to remember, but on the flip side, weak credentials like this can be broken by a simple dictionary attack in less than a second.

    Here’s a selection of passwords still in use today – hopefully, yours isn’t on there
    1564764251-257407-passwordlist.jpeg
    We as humans are relatively simplistic when it comes to credentials and associated security methods. Most users who do not work in the security industry have little understanding, desire to understand, or patience, and will naturally choose the route that makes their life easier. After all, technology is supposed to increase productivity, and make tasks easier to perform, right ? Right. And it’s this exact vulnerability that a cyber criminal will exploit to it’s full potential.

    Striking a balance between the security of credentials and ease of recall has always had it’s challenges. A classic example is that networks, websites and applications nowadays typically have password policies in place that only permit the use of a so-called strong password. Given the consolidation and overall assortment of letters, numbers, non-alphanumeric characters, uppercase and lowercase, the password itself is probably “secure” to an acceptable extent, although the method of storing the credentials isn’t. A shining example of this is the culture of writing down sensitive information such as credentials. I’ve worked in some organisations where users have actually attached their password to their monitor. Anyone looking for easy access into a computer network is onto an immediate winner here, and unauthorised access or a full blown breach could occur within an alarmingly short period of time.

    Leaked credentials and attacks from within

    You could argue that you would need access to the computer itself first, but in several historical breach scenarios, the attack originated from within. In this case, it may not be an active employee, but someone who has access to the area where that particular machine is located. Any potential criminal has the credentials – well, the password itself, but what about the username ? This is where a variety of techniques can be used in terms of username discovery – in fact, most of them being non-technical – and worryingly simple to execute. Think about what is usually on a desk in an office. The most obvious place to look for the username would be on the PC itself. If the user had recently logged out, or locked their workstation, then on a windows network, that would give you the username unless a group policy was in place. Failing that, most modern desk phones display the name of the user. On Cisco devices, under Extension Mobility, is the ID of the user. It doesn’t take long to find this. Finally there’s the humble business card. A potential criminal can look at the email address format, remove the domain suffix, and potentially predict the username. Most companies tend to leverage the username in email addresses mainly thanks to SMTP template address policies – certainly true in on premise Exchange environments or Office 365 tenants.

    The credentials are now paired. The password has been retrieved in clear text, and by using a simple discovery technique, the username has also been acquired. Sometimes, a criminal can get extremely lucky and be able to acquire credentials with minimal effort. Users have a habit of writing down things they cannot recall easily, and in some cases, the required information is relatively easily divulged without too much effort on the part of the criminal. Sounds absurd and far fetched, doesn’t it ? Get into your office early, or work late one evening, and take a walk around the desks. You’ll be unpleasantly surprised at what you will find. Amongst the plethora of personal effects such as used gym towels and footwear, I guarantee that you will find information that could be of significant use to a criminal – not necessarily readily available in the form of credentials, but sufficient information to create a mechanism for extraction via an alternative source. But who would be able to use such information ?

    Think about this for a moment. You generally come into a clean office in the mornings, so cleaners have access to your office space. I’m not accusing anyone of anything unscrupulous or illegal here, but you do need to be realistic. This is the 21st century, and as a result, it is a security measure you need to factor in and adopt into your overall cyber security policy and strategy. Far too much focus is placed on securing the perimeter network, and not enough on the threat that lies within. A criminal could get a job as a cleaner at a company, and spend time collecting intelligence in terms of what could be a vulnerability waiting to be exploited. Another example of “instant intelligence” is the network topology map. Some of us are not blessed with huge screens, and need to make do with one ancient 19″ or perhaps two. As topology maps can be quite complex, it’s advantageous to be able to print these in A3 format to make it easier to digest. You may also need to print copies of this same document for meetings. The problem here is what you do with that copy once you have finished with it ?

    How do we address the issue ? Is there sufficient awareness ?

    Yes, there is. Disposing of it in the usual fashion isn’t the answer, as it can easily be recovered. The information contained in most topology maps is often extensive, and is like a goldmine to a criminal looking for intelligence about your network layout. Anything like this is classified information, and should be shredded at the earliest opportunity. Perhaps one of the worst offences I’ve ever personally experienced is a member of the IT team opening a password file, then walking away from their desk without locking their workstation. To prove a point about how easily credentials can be inadvertently leaked, I took a photo with a smartphone, then showed the offender what I’d managed to capture a few days later. Slightly embarrassed didn’t go anywhere near covering it.

    I’ve been an advocate of securing credentials for some time, and recently read about the author of “NIST Special Publication 800-63” (Bill Burr). Now retired, he has openly admitted the advice he originally provided as in fact, incorrect

    “Much of what I did I now regret.” said Mr Burr, who advised people to change their password every 90 days and use obscure characters.

    “It just drives people bananas and they don’t pick good passwords no matter what you do.”

    The overall security of credentials and passwords

    However, bearing in mind that this supposed “advice” has long been the accepted norm in terms of password securuty, let’s look at the accepted standards from a well-known auditing firm

    It would seem that the Sarbanes Oxley 404 act dictates that regular changes of credentials are mandatory, and part of the overarching controls. Any organisation that is regulated by the SEC (for example) would be covered and within scope by this statement, and so the argument for not regularly changing your password becomes “invalid” by the act definition and narrative. My overall point here is that the clearly obvious bad password advice in the case of the financial services industry is negated by a severely outdated set of controls that require you to enforce a password change cycle and be in compliance with it. In addition, there are a vast number of sites and services that force password changes on a regular basis, and really do not care about what is known to be extensive research on password generation.

    The argument for password security to be weakened by having to change it on a frequent basis is an interesting one that definitely deserves intense discussion and real-world examples, but if your password really is strong (as I mentioned previously, there are variations of this which are really not secure at all, yet are considered strong because they meet a complexity requirement), then a simple mutation of it could render it vulnerable. I took a simple lowercase phrase

    mypasswordissimpleandnotsecureatall

    1564764311-893646-nonillion.png
    The actual testing tool can be found here. So, does a potential criminal have 26 nonillion years to spare ? Any cyber criminal who possesses only basic skills won’t need a fraction of that time as this password is in fact made up of simple dictionary words, is all lowercase, and could in fact be broken in seconds.

    My opinion ? Call it how you like – the password is here to stay for the near future at least. The overall strength of the password or credentials stored using MD5, bCrypt, SHA1 and so on are irrelevant when an attacker can use established and proven techniques such as social engineering to obtain your password. Furthermore, the addition of 2FA or a SALT dramatically increases password security – as does the amount of unsuccessful attempts permitted before the associated account is locked. This is a topic that interests me a great deal. I’d love to hear your feedback and comments.

  • phenomlabundefined

    Wasting a scammer's time is hugely entertaining

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    What would happen if a cyber criminal attempted to scam a security professional ? Well, some time ago, this happened to me. Like everyone, I certainly receive my fair share of junk email, scams, and pretty much everything else that the internet these days tends to throw at you. For the most part, each one of these “attacks” is ignored. However, one caught my eye after only the first paragraph. Not only was the format used absurd, but the supposedly “formal tone” was nothing short of a complete joke. Unfortunately, there really is no “TL;DR” synopsis for this particular event.

    Scrolling to the bottom of the article is of course up to you, but you’ll not only miss out on key information - you’ll also miss out on my sarcasm 🤣

    Admittedly, this “scam” sounds far fetched. But, believe it or not, this particular campaign has a high success rate (and, all content in this article actually happened). If this were not the case, would a potential criminal go to such lengths to impersonate and engage ? No. They rely on that one human trait known as trust. Trust which in this case is readily exploited. I promise that this article will be worth your while reading. Ready ? Buckle up. its going to be an interesting ride. During the journey, I’ll highlight the warning signs and provide an explanation into each. Let’s start.

    Day 1

    Out of the blue, I was contacted via email by someone calling themselves “Andrew Walter” - purportedly an employee at Bank of America. The first immediate sign that something is not quite all it seems here is that the email address used is in fact from the contact form on this site. What’s significant about that ? Well, there are a variety of techniques used by cyber criminals to gain access to legitimate email addresses. One known and widely used technique is the scraping of email addresses from websites and social media - in fact, the most notable is LinkedIn.

    Despite its age and somewhat basic approach, it still works very well. Why didn’t I secure it ? Simple. The contact form on this site also doubles as a honeypot. You’d be surprised what lands in here - as this “campaign” did. For the record, Phenomlab does not retain any information from this contact form. The initial text in the email might have been relatively convincing if it hadn’t contained a ”glow in the dark” grammatical error within the first line. What I’m alluding to here is that the email may as well have arrived complete with sirens and flashing lights. Here’s a snapshot

    Dear Mark Cutting. “I added you to my professional network in order to share a confidential proposal with you please contact me on my private email: andrewwalter411@gmail.com for briefing on proposal since i can not send attachment via linkedin”.

    Actually, you didn’t. I received no such request. Let’s have a look at the initial baiting technique. Who writes an email using the full name of a person without addressing them in the business (or even personal for that fact) sense ? In addition, why would you wrap what you want to say in quotes ? Finally, “I can not send attachment via LinkedIn” - actually, I received two from trusted sources in the same platform a day earlier. This email was so cringe worthy, I thought it rude to not reply ?

    Andrew, Can I ask what this is in relation to please ? Thanks

    That’s the hook that a scammer needs. After this, the response is a lot more detailed as the criminal plays out the story. I’m going to highlight the areas of interest here as I go, and have attached the full text in order to keep this article sane.

    I will start by saying thanks for your response…How is your family doing? I hope okay.

    Good start. Make it look like you know me personally and commence with the pleasantries - even though you in fact know nothing about me, and, in reality, couldn’t care less.

    My proposal is very important to me so please I want you to take the content of this mail very serious. All I want is an honest business transaction between us.

    This is anything but honest

    Day 2

    First of all, I will start by introducing myself. My name is Andrew Walter, I am currently working with Bank of America. I have been working here for 17 years now, and I have a good working record with my bank.

    That’s strange. According to the array of fake Andrew Walter (Bank of America) LinkedIn profiles, you’ve been there for 12 years. Did you step into a time machine and not tell anyone ? Perhaps you banged your head and lost 5 years in the process. What’s more than likely is that like most bad liars, you’ve lost track of what you told one person as oppose to the next. At least you tried to enforce a bit of trust with your statement around “I have a good working record with my bank”.
    1614967980-136791-linkedinpng.webp1614967988-257399-linkedin2png.webp

    I am also the personal accountant to Engineer (Lex Cutting ), a foreign contractor who has an investment account with my bank with a huge sum of money in it.

    Note the misplaced bracket here, and also note, that there is no “Lex Cutting” in my family tree. Am I a grammar snob ? No, but I expect a “business transaction” (if you can call it that) to at least not contain basic grammatical errors.

    My late client was a chemical consultant contractor with Royal Dutch Shell until his death in a fatal car accident while at France on sabbatical with his entire family. The accident unfortunately took the lives of the family members comprising of himself, his wife and two kids in the summer of 2007 may their soul rest in perfect peace.

    He banked with us here at Bank of America and had a very huge sum of money in his account which has still yet not been claimed by anybody as there was no living will in place when he died.

    “May their soul rest in perfect peace” and “A very huge sum of money” - instant alarm bells owing to the poor grammar. If you’re working under the pretence of being an educated individual employed by a tier 1 bank, you’re not doing a very good job.

    The amount of money involved here is about $15,812,664 (Fifteen Million, Eight Hundred and Twelve Thousand six hundred and sixty four US Dollars.) in account with indefinite interest.

    Holy s***, I’ve won the lottery !! Contain yourself man, and remember, its a fake ! Ok, composure resumed.

    Since the death of my client; my bank and I have made several inquiries to his embassy to locate any of his extended family members or relatives but this has proven unsuccessful. I came to know about you in my search for a person who shares the same last name as my late client.

    Yes - I and thousands of others no doubt. How lucky I’ve been selected for this “unique opportunity”.

    employed the services of LinkedIn search solely for this purpose as I feel it would not have been the last wishes of my late client for his whole life work to be transferred to a government (Es cheat) he had always complained of their unfavorable public monetary policies, taxes and so on while he was alive.

    Ok, so let me get this straight. You’ve trawled LinkedIn looking for “beneficiaries” when there are other far more orthodox and reliable channels to obtain this information. I can smell the sweat and toil of poorly conducted fraud here. Oh, and by the way, “Es cheat” is actually one word (ESCHEAT).

    My bank has issued me several notices to provide the next of kin or the account risk been es cheat within the next 10 official working days. The last notice for claim came to my desk last week. I am contacting you to assist me in repatriating the funds left behind before they are declared un-serviced by my bank. I am seeking your consent to present you as the next of kin of my late client since you share and bear the same last name.

    As such, the proceeds of the account can be paid to you as soon as you contact my bank and apply for the funds to be released to you as the next of kin. If we can be of one accord, I see no reason why we would not succeed. We both have to act swiftly on this matter in other to beat the deadline es cheat date.Please get back to me immediately for us to proceed.

    Wait a minute. If I’m the sole beneficiary, why do you want half ? Sounds like easy money to me. And the usage of “one accord” is somewhat “odd”.

    I am after the success of this transaction with your full co-operation. All I require is your honesty and full co-operation to enable us see this cool deal go through.

    I bet you are. “Cool deal” ? I thought I was taking to a professional here, not a school kid. Seems like our man has let his guard down for a split second and now his “Inna Gangsta” is shining through.

    I guarantee you that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you and me from breaching USA laws. I want to also inform you that I am a very religious person and I cannot tell a lie because of my strong believes; I would expect the same from you.

    Oh please, do me a favour. Pull the other one - its got bells on.

    I will attach a copy of my international passport in my next mail for authenticity so we have equal ground to trust each other. If you are interested in my proposal I will send you more information directing you on further procedure on how we can claim the money in the account successfully. If this proposal is alright by you then kindly get back to me.

    “Alright by you” - there’s that superb [sic] usage of business language again. This guy is awesome.

    The content of this mail should be treated with utmost confidentiality and a quick response from you will be highly appreciated. However, if you are not interested in this proposal, please accept my apologies for sending you the message and kindly delete message, I promised that you will never hear from me. I anticipate your co-operation.

    Of course. You wouldn’t want local law enforcement or the ”feds” knocking at your door now, would you ?

    Day 3

    This by now is so hilarious that I just had to respond.

    Hi. This sounds great. What would the next steps be ? Eagerly awaiting your response.

    And, without delay, here’s the response

    Dear Mark Cutting. I thank you for responding to my mail, I want to stress again that this transaction is very legitimate and there is no risk involved as I am the personal accountant to Late Engineer (Lex Cutting ) anything I say concerning this will be followed by the bank Executives.

    I bet. Actually, I’m struggling to follow your appallingly bad grammar here, but I expect you have your “very legitimate” reasons.

    However, before we can proceed further, I want you to assure me that you will be honest during the transaction and as soon as the funds is transferred to you we can meet in person and share money peacefully. You should understand that this transaction can be successful if we work together and as soon as I give you all legal procedure you will receive the funds from my bank, so I really need your assurance before we shall proceed.

    Wait - you want me to be honest ? Who’s scamming who here ?? What a complete scumbag.

    As I read your email I am very convinced with you and serious about this arrangement process as such, I would want you to take this serious too. My personal instinct directed me to contact you and I hope it was not a wrong thing to do.I shall direct you on the process of the claim; we shall start by sending a formal application to this effect. I will send you the text for the claims and transfer application to this effect. Thereafter, the bank will request of you the relevant back up documents to your claim and application according to the demand of our probate law for transfer of funds.

    Once you have provided the Bank with their demands, they would now be under legal obligation to transfer the funds to bank account provided by you. As part of the procedure of the claims, the documents that will be required from you will have to be acquired through legal procedures as the application of claim will be complimented with a legal award we shall have to seek from our law Court here. Be assured that the procedures to be adopted in effecting the transfer in your favor will be official and legal which will protect us from any breach of the law, We have the next 10 official working days.

    Right. Sounds fairly “straightforward”.

    Note: High confidentiality is required at all times. Do not tell anyone about this because, it might be unsafe for both of us. It would be safer for us to communicate by email for now as we have the trust. I hope you see reason with my decision on us talking by mail for now. As soon as the money has been transferred to your account, I will look for a country of our choice where we can see in person and subsequently share the funds in the ratio as discussed earlier.

    I can assure you it won’t be unsafe for me, but it probably is for you -“…now we have the trust”. Note, that the scammer gains confidence here, and starts making some fairly basic mistakes.

    Above all, I personally count on God to facilitate our plan and understanding, to produce not just success but also peaceful sharing of the funds at the end of the day and a wealthy family business relationship between us. I also pray for establishment of cordial relationship between us, God being our helper.

    I agree - you’re definitely going to need all the help you can get here. You’re not getting anything from me, so divine intervention is probably the only thing you have left.

    As soon as I hear from you and receive your assurance, I will send you the Text of Application for you to contact my bank for the release of the funds in the account of (Lex Nicholl) to your account as his next of kin.

    Hold it right there ! Who is Lex** “Nicholl”** ? Major alarm bells here. Looks like this guy has his wires crossed or didn’t get good morning injection of caffeine. This is a glaring oversight and I’m guessing all those lovingly created campaigns have a similar fault.

    would advice that you follow all the steps and procedures which I will give you so that we can get to the end of this transaction quickly. I need you to send a copy of your international passport to me and I will send mine as soon as I receive your reply indicating understanding from both of us.

    Of course. You need my passport. How undeniably stupid of me to think that you could complete this “transaction” without stealing the holy grail of personally identifiable documents in the process and using it like the gift that keeps giving for your other criminal campaigns (I sincerely hope they are better than this one).

    Day 4

    Time to turn up the heat a bit

    Hi. Can you send me the claims transfer forms for review ? Thanks

    This guy is like a dog on heat and he’s well and truly bitten this

    Dear Mark Cutting. I hope you and your family are well am so sorry for my late response as i read your email I was convinced, and I want you to understand that I need proper confirmation as I states below to be more in assurance of doing this transaction with you. The documents that will be required from us will have to be acquired through legal procedures as I explained, the application of claim will be complimented with a legal back up confirming this as a legitimate transaction, I have the account details with all access codes and will give it to you once it is required by the bank, also with me here all approvals will be provided and the transfer released to you.

    We are going to keep our communication on email for now to ensure that we are under absolute security due to high level call interception here in United States I would like you to see it with me that security is very necessary we have to be on email or text messages until the transaction is completed and I will visit you to implement our sharing.

    Yes, I agree that security is “very necessary” and also appreciate you do not want roughing up by “the feds” anytime soon. Let’s keep the communication on email so I don’t start to question who you are ? A quick side note here - if you want a secure channel, email is completely the opposite unless its been encrypted - which this hasn’t, and could be subject to eavesdropping. And, as a way of putting my mind at rest, here’s a lovely fake passport for your viewing pleasure. To the untrained eye, this could look convincing, but it a fake. One of the key identifiers here are the “wavy lines” over the picture. This is in fact a security watermark, and is unique for each passport issued. The lines will never repeat each other - if you look carefully at the below, the lines do in fact repeat.
    1614968131-783791-passport-fakepng.webp
    Below is an actual fake passport that was used in a scam a number of years ago. You’ll notice that this one is slightly less complex as it has the watermark missing, but is still fake, nonetheless.
    1614968502-542440-fake-passport-examplejpg.webp

    The transfer in your favor will be official and legal which will protect us from any breach of the law. Whatever the cost of his transaction will be, is going to be on both of us which I believe that you will not let me handle all the process alone.

    Of course not. You wouldn’t want to have to share any of the spoils, would you ? And just like any other “business transaction” you don’t want to be spending any of your money unnecessarily. Interesting that he’s actually used the US English “favor” rather than the UK English of “favour”. Pity he’s not been so diligent elsewhere. I know…let’s try and spend mine.

    I will give you the text application letter of the transfer request for our ledger department and also details on the way forward with the transaction once you have agreed with the following

    Are you ready to maintain the high level of confidentiality required for the successful conclusion of this transaction?

    Are you promising me that your account can be able to carry a transaction of such magnitude without any problem

    Are you willing to accept 50% for your participation without any problems in collecting my share from you?

    “Yes, yes, yes !” Let’s do this thing, and I’ll also throw in a portable radio to make the deal even more “appealing”.

    I will need your help in directing me and investing part of my share in your country the investment will be under your control until I am able to take over or it can be a joint venture depending on your decision. as soon as i receive a copy of your passport or id document and i as well have attached a copy of my passport for you to see whom you are working with.

    Please reply as soon as possible if you in understanding with me so that we can proceed with the bank with text application.

    Day 5

    Now this is getting interesting. What this really means is that once I have your bank details, I won’t be making a deposit - only a withdrawal (from my account, of course). Time to contact the Bank of America - this guy is an absolute riot (anagram of idiot) and yes, I can’t spell either, or count.

    Dear Sirs, I write with reference to what I believe to be a 419 Nigerian scam, sent to my email address. I am a security expert by trade, and wish to report this to yourselves. I believe the “sender” is impersonating one of your employees. I have also enclosed a scanned PDF file of the “passport”, which I also believe to be fake. I’m currently entertaining this individual as a way of reeling him in so I can report him to the necessary authorities.

    Clearly, I have no intention of supplying any sensitive information, including my passport. Whilst I expect that you receive many emails of this nature, I would like confirmation that the enclosed photo in the passport is not in fact a Bank of America employee

    Sadly, absolutely no response from Bank of America. I expect that they receive thousands of emails like this on a regular basis. Oh well, onward and upward. Let’s not keep our friend waiting.

    Hi Mark , Thank you for your email, and understanding, we do not have much time to complete this transaction to avoid reaching the es-cheat date.i will start the preparation of the application text which will be submitted to the bank as official application to cover the estate by the family member of Late Mr. Lex Cutting.

    I will send it to you for review by tomorrow. As a side note, there’s that misplaced capital letter

    Well now, that’s more like it ! Now we’re best friends forever, we can lower our guard a bit and revert to informal language (well, formal in the sense that our author is suffering from capital letter displacement). Perhaps we caused a bit of suspicion in our last messages and want to be a bit more convincing ? I’m game if you are buddy. Let’s make this a bit more interesting.

    Hi Andrew, Thanks for the email. I’ve just moved house, and things are in a bit of a mess, so I cannot place my passport for a few days until I’ve finished unpacking - hopefully, this doesn’t cause you any problems. I can answer “yes” to all the questions below.

    In the meantime, to speed up the process, is there any way we can proceed whilst I attempt to find my passport ?

    Thanks

    Well, look at me ! I know exactly where my passport is and I haven’t moved house - we need a bit of time here to do some further digging, so I’m throwing him off the scent for a few days whilst I perform some background investigation and analysis. I let this go on for 6 days before responding - note, that previously, “Andrew” had warned me we only had 10 days to nail this “cool deal”.

    We’ve since passed that landmark, but interestingly, he’s not that worried it seems. Admittedly, at this point I thought of sending a copy of Jason Bourne’s passport which are readily available for download via a quick Google - http://www.indyprops.com/pp-bournepass.htm. However, despite my assumption that this person I’m dealing with is stupid, I don’t think there’s many people on this planet who haven’t heard of Jason Bourne or seen at least one movie from the franchise.

    Based on this simple conclusion, its not a wise move in my view as it means ending the story here (unless this guy has been living under a rock)…. and there’s so much more to tell yet ! Therefore, we’ll need to take another route. Let’s increase the stakes. Note that by this point, we’re up to day 5, and we only had 10 days to complete this “cool deal”.

    Its now day 11 after I’ve kept him waiting for 6 days intentionally.

    Day 11

    Hi Andrew, Sorry for the delay. I finally found my passport, and have scanned a copy. However, I’ve read that email isn’t secure, so I can either FedEx a copy to you (I’ll need an address of course), or I can provide a secure link for you to download a password protected zip file. I’ll email you the password for that under separate cover. Would this be ok ? Keen to get things moving. Thanks

    I can almost hear the cogs in motion as my best friend formulates a response. A spanner in the works and probably not on his “canned response” sheet. This guy now needs to up his game to stay in the running.

    Hi mark. I hope you and your family are well? thank you so much for your mail please scan and send the copy of your international passport to this email (andrewwalter166@gmail.com) will can communicate much better even while i’m right in my work place i can reply over there anytime. as soon i receive your reply we will be proceeding with the text of application.

    I will be waiting to hear from you.

    Yes, I bet you will. This is the response I expected (note the “new” email address highlighted in yellow above - why change this now ? Keep reading) - if I then dropped out afterwards, this guy would still have a copy of my genuine passport, and could (and undoubtedly would) use this to commit other types of fraudulent activity.

    Essentially, its all about the money, so if the primary campaign fails, there is a good chance the second one will succeed, which is why the passport is requested so early to avoid over investment in terms of time.

    Hi Andrew, I really don’t want to send my passport by email. Can you give me an address of where it can be sent (postal) or let me know if you’d be ok downloading the copy needed from a link I will provide ? Thanks

    “Hang him on a hook and let me play with him”
    1614968549-147228-hhoahjpg.webp
    I’m so bad. Let’s see how much he wants this. Pushing for the postal address risks blowing the (supposedly carefully planned) cover and exposing him. He can’t exactly give me an address in Africa now, can he ? I’ve already preempted this and laid the foundations for a honeypot trap. I need to explain myself a bit here for those reading this and scratching their heads with images of Winnie the Pooh and a honey jar, so bear with me.

    A honeypot is a computer system or landing page that is set up to act as a decoy to lure fraudsters and cyber criminals - its essential function is to detect, deflect or study attempts to gain unauthorized access to information systems that are not for public use. At the heart of this honeypot is a system that is capable of obtaining a wealth of information about the accessing user in terms of IP address, geographic location, and a whole variety of data that would allow the recipient to piece together a trail of breadcrumbs. Any seasoned cyber criminal knows about the existence of such technology (its not exactly new) and would typically use a TOR browser to connect to any links provided by the victim in order to avoid detection.

    The TOR network is a complex array of secured computer systems acting as “nodes” that traverse the internet using a variety of encryption mechanisms and connection masking, allowing the user to hide behind a number of random proxies that make it look as though he or she is accessing from a completely different geographical location. The TOR network was originally intended for use by the US navy, but found its way out and became the favourite watering hole for many a cyber criminal - and today, known as either the deep web, or worse, the dark web. Ok, that’s enough history and boring technical terms. Let’s get back on track. Essentially, I’ve created a hidden honeypot on this site and the only two people who have this link are myself, and our scammer friend. The page cannot be indexed or crawled by Google either. Time to up the stakes

    Hi Andrew, Any update to this please ? Thanks

    Day 12

    No response. Perhaps I’ve pushed this a little too far. Let’s see

    Hi Andrew, I’m concerned that I haven’t heard from you and don’t want to miss out on this amazing opportunity. Can you let me know what we need to do next please ? Thanks

    I honestly thought that he wouldn’t reply, but he did.

    Dear Mark Cutting. Hope all is fine with you and the family? i am writing to know if you are still interested with this transaction i need a copy of your international passport in other to know whom i’m working with for more verification as soon you send it down here

    Now, when I went to school, the UK was across from America and not down - hence the term “across the pond”. Did I miss something here ? A figure of speech perhaps, but more likely a slip of the tongue. Looking at a map “down here” would indicate south, surely ?

    we will be proceeding with the text of application to contact my bank for funds relic please update me as soon as possible.

    And here we have another schoolboy error. This guy thinks he can relax now he’s done his chore. Not only is the text clearly copied and pasted (with the formatting intact so he first line doesn’t match the rest in terms of font size), but much worse is the fact that he’s now using a different email address altogether and hasn’t even made any attempts to hide this. Clearly, he’s got a lot going on, and there are undoubtedly hundreds of “Andrew Walter” doppelgangers lurking in the shadows like something out of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.

    To understand this complete failure, let’s take a closer look - perhaps he’s got some sort of “Salesforce(esque)” campaign on the go where willing participants are directed to another email address for easy reference (milking)! The email address we started with was “andrewwalter411@gmail.com” which in itself isn’t very convincing. Now we’ve suddenly switched to “andrewwalter166@gmail.com” and also lazy again with our grammar as “Andrew Walter” is now “andrew walter”.
    1614968634-496024-emails.webp
    I suppose I could send him a Starbucks voucher so he can get a strong coffee and wake up, but, this is his gig, so I’ll let him play his hand.

    Hi Andrew, As I previously mentioned, I won’t send my passport via email because I was told it wasn’t secure. Instead, I’ll provide a link to a secure website where it can be downloaded as a zip file. I’ll also provide the password for the zip file so you can extract it. I’ll get this over to you today. Thanks

    Now we’re “upping the ante” a bit. Not only do we respond to the original email, but also to the new one with the same message above. I’m relatively sure at this point that our friend isn’t exactly an experienced fraudster, and probably won’t even notice his own mistake. Wait for a bit……. then send the link. Note that the link itself has been redacted for obvious reasons and is not the original.

    Dear Andrew, I’ve scanned a copy of my passport to PDF and placed it in a password protected ZIP file. It can be downloaded using the link below. https://[redacted]/KCXXu4MN8G6FZqFt4Mb7hQfRZXmHA3Fn/securedownload/ Let me know as soon as you’ve downloaded the ZIP file, and I’ll send you the password in a separate email. Thanks

    I wasn’t really expecting this guy to bite if I’m being honest, but never say die - he’s just fallen straight into the honeypot (or should I say, “boiling pot”)

    Hi, the link is infected i can not open it my system refused to run the link. send it via pdf which i can view before download or jpg.

    Actually “Andrew”, the link **isn’t **infected. I understand your frustration though, as its very annoying having your time wasted by a moronic idiot who seems to lack the ability to string even basic sentences together…… Alright - that’s enough of that. The thing is “Andrew”, you didn’t follow my instructions. Not that this really matters at the moment anyway as I have got what I came for. The string on the carrot has just been made shorter. I know at this point, you can almost taste it, but I’m not finished with you just yet.

    Hi Andrew, The link works fine on my PC. its a password protected ZIP file created by 7Zip. If you use this to extract, you’ll need to enter the password to extract the PDF which I’ll send you under separate cover. Regds

    He’s in for a bit of a surprise when he gets around to opening that Zip file. There’s a PDF there all right, but it’s certainly not my passport. In fact, “Andrew” has had three attempts at downloading that file
    1614968689-559410-file-downloadpng.webp
    According to the honeypot, it would appear that he’s operating out of Randburg (Johannesburg, South Africa) - a very well known fraud hotspot.
    1614968849-529265-locationpng.webp
    The GEO information is provided courtesy of https://db-ip.com/41.113.125.214

    If those coordinates are accurate, then the local law enforcement aren’t too far away. Have a look below
    1614968903-340115-policepng.webp
    In fact, about 12 miles away (dependant on exact location of course, which the local ISP can provide when requested by law enforcement agencies)
    1614969237-763652-directions1.webp

    Day 13

    The next steps here are quite obvious. Pass it onto the local authorities to investigate, with a copy of all material received thus far

    Dear Sirs, I write with reference to an incident where a scammer in your location has trawled LinkedIn and obtained my address with a view to commit coercion and fraudulent activity. The IP address that this fraud attempt has originated from is https://db-ip.com/41.113.125.214. I have a complete record of all activity, plus a copy of what I believe to be a stolen passport.

    I am a security professional by trade, and wish to report this as criminal activity. I have a complete evidence chain of emails relating to this particular event - the incumbent has requested a copy of my passport (which for obvious reasons I will not be providing), and no doubt will also attempt to acquire my bank details. This person is posing as “Andrew Walter” from Bank of America - there are several fake profiles on LinkedIn relating to this individual. I am also aware that local law enforcement can request the physically connected location for this address - you should find its about 12 miles away from your location.

    I have obtained this fraudster’s IP address via a honeypot on my website, which I purposely setup to extract this information. I would appreciate your cooperation in this individual’s apprehension, as it would appear that the same person is responsible for a number of similar campaigns designed to extract funds from others. I am based in the UK, but can be free to discuss as you deem fit. I have enclosed copies of all emails received so far, plus an example of the LinkedIn profiles which I believe are fake. Mark Cutting

    And the below read receipt shows that this email has been read (well, opened, at least)

    Your message was read on 16 May 2018 10:32:48 AM UTC. Final-recipient: RFC822; T0023694@saps.gov.za Disposition: automatic-action/MDN-sent-automatically; displayed X-MSExch-Correlation-Key: c1tMJuEijE6r4WJRtMhQlw== X-Display-Name: GPS:Randburg SC Admin

    its at this point where things become much clearer. This guy really hasn’t done his homework. He’s been conversing with me outside of US time zones (well, Johannesburg is only currently 1 hour ahead of the UK after all) which can only mean he either has severe insomnia, or isn’t actually based in the USA. I wonder which one it could be ? Perhaps he should see a doctor and get some pills for that…. 🙂 I’ve since sent “Andrew” another email, but unfortunately, he hasn’t replied. I guess he’s “busy” with his next victim.

    Hi Andrew,

    I’m a bit concerned I’ve not heard from you, and with the deadline approaching, I really do not want to miss out. Can you let me know if you were able to open the zip file with 7zip as I previously mentioned ?

    When you try to extract it, you’ll need a password which I’ll provide to you once you confirm you’re able to open.

    Please keep me updated.

    Thanks

    The ironic thing here is that “Andrew” in fact already has the password for that zip file I sent him ! If he’s the hotshot he makes out to be, then I’m sure he’ll work it out. In the meantime, I’m guessing you all want to know what that zip file contained ? Well, I did say it was a PDF, but its not my passport. Here you go.
    1614969001-333126-pdf1png.webp

    Conclusion

    Sadly, there’s been no response to the email I sent to SAPS (South African Police Services). Oh well. They have all the evidence they need, although in fact, no actual “fraud” has been committed. That effectively means that “scoping out” a potential victim and attempting to reel them in isn’t actually an offence. Although identity impersonation certainly is and I’d be surprised if they were not interested in this.

    So there you have it - a walk-through of what to look for in these types of scam. Here’s the highlights

    No official institution like the Bank of America is going to allow its employees to conduct business over a GMAIL account. In all honesty, faking the bankofamerica.com domain would have been much more convincing, and wouldn’t have taken much effort either. After a quick iteration of the real name, I found the below If an email supposedly comes from the US, then why are all emails being sent outside of their working hours ? Any transaction of this sort would never be conducted over email anyway - for this amount (if this were indeed real), it would have to be completed face-to-face in the presence of bank officials, lawyers, compliance, and a whole raft of others. No institution is going to request a copy of any identifiable details (passport, bank accounts, etc.) over email. Poor grammar is an immediate warning sign. You need at least a decent grade in English if you are going to pretend to be someone you’re not Bad spelling is another. There are so many errors here and it makes any campaign stand up and shout “hey, I’m fake !”

    Hope you enjoyed this somewhat absurd journey.

    Keep safe out there, folks.

  • phenomlabundefined

    Keep It Simple, Stupid...

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    phenomlabundefined

    tech.jpeg
    Ever heard of KISS ? Nope - not these guys

    kiss.jpeg
    What I’m referring to is the acronym was reportedly coined by Kelly Johnson, lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works (creators of the Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird spy planes, among many others), which formed the basis of the relationship between the way things break, and the sophistication available to repair them. You might be puzzled at why I’d write about something like this, but it’s a situation I see constantly – one I like to refer to as “over thinker syndrome”. What do I mean by this ? Here’s the theory. Some people are very analytical when it comes to problem solving. Couple that with technical knowledge and you could land up with a situation where something relatively simple gets blown out of all proportion because the scenario played out in the mind is often much further from reality than you’d expect. And the technical reasoning is usually always to blame.

    Some years ago in a previous career, a colleague noticed that the Exchange Server (2003 wouldn’t you know) would suddenly reboot half way through a backup job. Rightly so, he wanted to investigate and asked me if this would be ok. Anyone with an ounce of experience knows that functional backups are critical in the event of a disaster – none more so than I – obviously, I gave the go ahead. One bright spark in my team suggested a reboot of the server, which immediately prompted the response

    “……it’s rebooting itself every day, so how will that help ?”

    There’s always one, isn’t there ? The final (and honestly more realistic suggestion) was to enable verbose logging in Exchange. This is actually a good idea, but only if you suspect that the information store could be the issue. Given the evidence, I wasn’t convinced. If there was corruption in the store, or on any of the disks, this would show itself randomly through the day and wouldn’t wait until 2am in the morning. Not wanting to come across as condescending, I agreed, but at the same time, set a deadline to escalation. I wasn’t overly concerned about the backups as these were being completed manually each day whilst the investigations were taking place. Neither was I concerned at what could be seen at this point as wasting someone’s time when you think you may have the answer to what now seemed to be an impossible problem. This is where experience will eclipse any formal qualifications hands down. Those with university degrees may scoff at this, but those with substantially analytical thinking patterns seem to avoid logic like the plague and go off on a wild tangent looking for a dramatically technical explanation and solution to a problem when it’s much simpler than you’d expect.

    After witnessing the pained expression on the face of my now exasperated and exhausted tech, I said “let’s get a coffee”. In agreement, he followed me to the kitchen and then asked me what I thought the problem could be. I said that if he wanted my advice, it would be to step back and look at this problem from a logical angle rather than technical. The confused look I received was priceless – the guy must have really though I’d lost the plot. After what seemed like an eternity (although in reality only a few seconds) he asked me what I meant by this. “Come with me”, I said. Finishing his coffee, he diligently followed me to the server room. Once inside, I asked him to show me the Exchange Server. Puzzled, he correctly pointed out the exact machine. I then asked him to trace the power cables and tell me where they went.

    As with most server rooms, locating and identifying cables can be a bit of a challenge after equipment has been added and removed, so this took a little longer than we expected. Eventually, the tech traced the cables back to

    ………an old looking UPS that had a red light illuminated at the front like it had been a prop in a Terminator film.

    Suddenly, the real cause of this issue dawned on the tech like a morning sunrise over the Serengeti. The UPS that the Exchange Server was unexpectedly connected to had a faulty battery. The UPS was conducting a self test at 2am each morning, and because the bypass test failed owing to the burnt battery, the connected server lost power and started back up after the offending equipment left bypass mode and went online.

    Where is this going you might ask ? Here’s the moral of this particular story

    Just because a problem involves technology, it doesn’t mean that the answer has to be a complex technical one Logic and common sense has a part to play in all of our lives. Sometimes, it makes more sense just to step back, take a breath, and see something for what it really is before deciding to commit It’s easy to allow technical expertise to cloud your judgement – don’t fall into the trap of using a sledgehammer to break an egg You cannot buy experience – it’s earned, gained, and leaves an indelible mark
  • phenomlabundefined

    New blog section added

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    phenomlabundefined

    I’m excited to announce that a new blog section has been added 😛 The blog is actually using Ghost and not NodeBB, and also sits on it’s own subdomain of https://content.sudonix.com (if you ever fancy hitting it directly).

    We’ve moved all the blog articles out of the existing category here, and migrated them to the Ghost platform. However, you can still comment on these articles just like they were part of the root system. If you pick a blog article whilst logged in

    7e61c35b-2304-4c06-bda2-34da52252e1a-image.png

    Then choose the blog article you want to read

    7ca5089e-cf7e-4050-b951-5426fd1c6ec3-image.png

    Once opened, you’ll see a short synopsis of the article

    1bc086b4-5968-4e81-bc47-70de263b2275-image.png

    Click the link to read the rest of the post. Scroll down to the bottom, and you’ll see a space where you can provide your comments ! Take the time to read the articles, and provide your own feedback - I’d love to hear it.

    3f712e7c-475d-42d4-a5ca-b4becff6cc2e-image.png

    The blog component is not quite finished yet - it needs some polish, and there’s a few bugs scattered here and there, but these will only manifest themselves if a certain sequence of events is met.