Internet scammers score at Wasaga | GTAMotorcycle.com

Internet scammers score at Wasaga

nobbie48

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Apparently Wasaga Beach and Midland fell for scams and had to pay ransom for their computers. It sounds like 4 bitcoin, about $35K, plus another $200K in lost productivity and consulting fees. Midland didn't give figures. Sucks.

What if they paid and didn't get the computers unlocked?

I've had two "From the internet" calls this week.
 
Company I work for lost a few million due to an idiot (likely someone very high up, because no one got fired) responding to a fraud email.

I actually want to bash everyone at the company that is technologically inept. For those of us that grew up playing World of Warcraft or other MMORPGs, we are quite familiar with what scam emails look like; and they said playing video games was a waste of time lol

I feel zero remorse for Wasaga and any company that falls for this kind of ****. The scenarios where one gets hacked generally fall under:

1. Social engineering; this can range from trash diving to a ****** off ex developer (do not piss off your developers)
2. Running unsupported technology because some ****er is too cheap to upgrade; a company deserves to get hacked for this
3. Using the same password across everything
4. Using ANYTHING from here https://github.com/danielmiessler/SecLists/tree/master/Passwords

Any other software dudes wanna chime in?
 
My work takes nightly backups of all the servers, so when we had someone click on a ransomware email link and got some files locked, IT just wiped everything and went back to the last backup that wasn't effected. Some people lost a little bit of work, but nothing huge. While we fight with IT all the time, they saved us that day hahaha

I've received some pretty convincing emails on my personal account from shipping companies that made me question if they were real or not, and I'm usually pretty good with that sort of stuff, so I can only imagine what some old woman would click on.
 
I like the one where they tell me my windoze computer is sending them alerts :lmao: sure.
 
I have a good friend that is in a senior position with the town of Wasaga. The real costs greatly exceed the published costs, and every other rinky dink town hall in Ontario is a target.

Upgrade your interweb security today folks!
 
Scam emails/phishing is kinda pedestrian, you will always have users that open them. Letting those users have enough network share access to allow the ransomware to encrypt big chunks of your data is somewhat irresponsible/lazy, though

Like if your network admins are having trouble figuring out what AD is for, I'm available
 
Company I worked at decided to give all of the big wigs Macs instead of PCs. First day, they were in, I found that I could open all of the president's private folders. It took them days to fix the settings, and every other executive had the same defaults.

Later on when they were doing security scans, they had to get people with Macs to open folders, and let them manually check for illegitimate software. This was at the time when you could partition your Mac hard drive, and take portions offline.

Then again it was the same company that forgot to stop paying me after they the department off, to outsource all of their IT. I had to bug them for three months to fix it, and then they managed to freeze the wrong account and bounce my rent.

My mother almost fell for a scam, but she had altzheimer's at the time, so don't think that just because you're with it now, you'll be o.k. forever.
 
Company I worked at decided to give all of the big wigs Macs instead of PCs. First day, they were in, I found that I could open all of the president's private folders. It took them days to fix the settings, and every other executive had the same defaults.

Later on when they were doing security scans, they had to get people with Macs to open folders, and let them manually check for illegitimate software. This was at the time when you could partition your Mac hard drive, and take portions offline.

Then again it was the same company that forgot to stop paying me after they the department off, to outsource all of their IT. I had to bug them for three months to fix it, and then they managed to freeze the wrong account and bounce my rent.

My mother almost fell for a scam, but she had altzheimer's at the time, so don't think that just because you're with it now, you'll be o.k. forever.

Interesting point. As computer knowledgeable people age their memories will weaken. Every site has different rules for passwords, mix of caps and lower, numbers, punctuation etc and change them regularly. Some of these people will have problem remembering their pills at breakfast.

One password for everything means that a site with low security IE recipe exchange, gets hacked and then the hacker has the bank info.
 
Interesting point. As computer knowledgeable people age their memories will weaken. Every site has different rules for passwords, mix of caps and lower, numbers, punctuation etc and change them regularly. Some of these people will have problem remembering their pills at breakfast.

One password for everything means that a site with low security IE recipe exchange, gets hacked and then the hacker has the bank info.

I think you mistake IT folk with having good memory.

I am really ****ing lazy lol I don't memorize my passwords. They follow an algorithm. I also hate remembering ****, so I abuse lists for everything.

Actually, to be frank, I hate thinking so I either make software to do it for me, or incorporate some kind of routine to completely dull out the thinking; front load all the work so there is no work later. Many software developers have this mindset; I recall some guy wrote a script that would send an automated work email if his computer didn't turn on by 9AM. The excuse would be randomly generated.

And @Baggsy, you are way too nice of a guy. Should've created a script that's named "GetRichQuick.sh" with "rm -rf /" inside.

If this is as old as I think it is, there may not have been protection from recursively ****ing up root; when people are gonna be stupid, might as well let them learn the hard way....just like squids >=)

EDIT: So funny enough, rm -rf /* works still. I need to restore my backup now.
 
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Just like bad habits in driving can open you up to risk and accidents, same things happen in IT. Bad habits and sloppiness will get you intro trouble eventually.

I am part of a whatsapp group. Someone in the group passed around a message as a PSA on potential security issue with whatapp happening the next day. I recognized this of scam right away from the early days of email. But of course it has been re created for another platform. Is was a hoax, and the person didn't do any fact checking before sending it off to the group, just took it at face value. When dealing with mass's you will always find someone who will be gullible, or make a mistake on the info provided.

I guess this kind of behaviour will keep "good" IT people employed as there will be some idiots who can't get it.
 
油井緋色;2589809 said:
I think you mistake IT folk with having good memory.

I am really ****ing lazy lol I don't memorize my passwords. They follow an algorithm. I also hate remembering ****, so I abuse lists for everything.

Actually, to be frank, I hate thinking so I either make software to do it for me, or incorporate some kind of routine to completely dull out the thinking; front load all the work so there is no work later. Many software developers have this mindset; I recall some guy wrote a script that would send an automated work email if his computer didn't turn on by 9AM. The excuse would be randomly generated.

And @Baggsy, you are way too nice of a guy. Should've created a script that's named "GetRichQuick.sh" with "rm -rf /" inside.

If this is as old as I think it is, there may not have been protection from recursively ****ing up root; when people are gonna be stupid, might as well let them learn the hard way....just like squids >=)

EDIT: So funny enough, rm -rf /* works still. I need to restore my backup now.

lol. We had someone do that to the backup Unix server ONCE. It was back when we were still using some punched cards, and all the monitors/keyboards were covered in some orange substance.

I've also seen someone try and throw a monitor through a 40th floor window, get fired by one manager, and hired by another just to cheese off that manager, all in the same afternoon.

I think the scam she was falling for was the grandchild in immediate trouble and needs bail money one.
 
Wait...

Try or succeeded in throwing the monitor out the window? That sounds pretty epic lmao
 
油井緋色;2589845 said:
Wait... Try or succeeded in throwing the monitor out the window? That sounds pretty epic lmao

Tried. I've seen people lean ladders against the windows there.

Rumor had it that one guy did manage to run through one, but it was later found that it had been improperly fastened. He was trying to spook his friend who had a corner office, but was afraid of heights.

We had one guy run down 80+ flights of stairs when the Halon dumped by accident.
 
Tried. I've seen people lean ladders against the windows there.

Rumor had it that one guy did manage to run through one, but it was later found that it had been improperly fastened. He was trying to spook his friend who had a corner office, but was afraid of heights.

We had one guy run down 80+ flights of stairs when the Halon dumped by accident.

I need to change jobs. The only dramatic thing that happens here is ppl blaming the software team for data entry errors so we implemented a hidden history log to know who to blame lol
 
... We had one guy run down 80+ flights of stairs when the Halon dumped by accident.

... somebody should inform him that Halon is heavier then air :| he should have run up the stairs unless he was attempting to asphyxiate himself.
 
油井緋色;2589879 said:
I need to change jobs. The only dramatic thing that happens here is ppl blaming the software team for data entry errors so we implemented a hidden history log to know who to blame lol
Just have to do it for 30-40 years.
 
... somebody should inform him that Halon is heavier then air :| he should have run up the stairs unless he was attempting to asphyxiate himself.

Some pranksters informed him that it would kill him dead on the spot.

I was on a ladder that he knocked over as he ran by, and was then crawling around on the floor looking for my glasses.

The Halon was kept to a sealed temperature controlled (read cold) room.
 
I bet it's the CTO that created the document that's why he fired the jr. dev! he wanted to tell the president it's the dev's fault. Get him out of the way so he can't tell his side of the story.

That was my first thought. Make sure that the only story heading up the chain is the one the CTO wants. Even if it wasn't him that created the process, having such a glaring hole in your process and never recognizing it means he failed at his job.
 

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