Thoughts From My Inbox

July 2nd, 2021

Something About…

This one appeared in my inbox four times yesterday;  One from our security partner, one from a random vendor I’ve never heard of, one from our director of operations, and the fourth from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Obviously, it’s rather important, and it has to do with a print spooler vulnerability.  To be honest, I wasn’t even sure what a print spooler is, so I googled it; every result on the first page was related to this current threat.  It effects Windows-based PCs and servers from the most recent operating systems back to Windows 7 (and many server operating systems). A print spooler is what controls all the print jobs being sent from a network to the printer down the hall, by the way. Anyhow, this is Greek to me, so if you’re not an IT person, make sure to check with your IT provider to ensure that they’re keeping eyes open on this.  And apply the patch as soon as Microsoft releases it.

You’ve probably all heard of the famous Nigerian Prince (and many of you have probably been emailed on his behalf). You remember- he has a ton of money and just needs a down payment from you so that he can send you your share (or something like that).  It seems that authorities have found the Nigerian Prince, and he’s living pretty large- Hush Puppies and Gucci, don’t ya know.  This is a rather lengthy article- the first half being the most important, as it lays out how a Business Email Compromise (BEC) works.  The rest gets into details about our protagonist and why Nigeria became the hotbed for this type of scam.

I’m sure that one of you were aware that Wednesday (June 30) was World Social Media Day (I had no clue). According to Twitter, it’s an ‘official global celebration’ and Mashable says it’s a great way of ‘recognizing the impact that social media has had on communications around the world…’ (I think they feel that the ‘impact’ has been nothing but positive, but don’t get me started on that).  In any case, this article has some good reminders about passwords, login credentials, and privacy settings.  Many people forget that social media is a great place for social engineers to scrape personal information about their targets- why make it easier for them?

I never use Google docs, unless somebody is trying to send me something.  And even then, I usually have to ask them to attach a Word document, as I can’t get into Google Docs, anyway.  That said, I’m sure there are plenty of you who rely heavily on Google Docs, and to whom this update would be important. Hackers are now using Google Docs to phish for login creds.  Another reminder that users are the first line of defense, and that security awareness training is extremely important.

I guess I’ve already read too many Bloomberg articles this month, so I can’t read this one about “Airbnb making nightmares go away”.  Found it summarized in a couple of other places though. It’s claimed that Airbnb pays out $50M annually to cover up incidents that might make them look bad.  As the NY Post piece says, “Guests cowering in closets while assailants try to sniff them out, crews dispatched to clean up blood and other bodily fluids, patch up bullet holes, or soothe the poor soul who stumbles upon dismembered human body parts — such are the horror stories common to Black Box staffers.”

The recent real estate listings in this publication have been for large houses and apartments.  This week, I figured we’d go small (which isn’t the same as “inexpensive”). We have a nice 2BR, 2.5BA apartment overlooking Central Park, in NYC, that can be yours for $13.7M.  That’s over $6.5M per bedroom, if my 4th grade math is correct.   We also have a 4,750 square foot lot on the west side of downtown Toronto, for just under $1M.  That equates to .11 acre, which would be just perfect for that tiny house you always wanted to build.  Finally, if you’re not convinced that you want to buy “really small”, you can rent a tent in Mountain View, CA, for $900/month.