Scott Schober, Correspondent, Talks Bitcoin, Uber, Botnets

Both Segments: Scott Schober. 

Scott N. Schober is the President and CEO of Berkeley Varitronics Systems (BVS), a forty-year-old New Jersey-based privately held company and leading provider of advanced, world-class wireless test and security solutions. Schober also invented BVS’s cell phone detection tools, used to enforce a “no cell phone policy” in prisons and secure government facilities. Scott is a highly sought-after subject expert on the topic of cybersecurity.

Today’s Topics Include:

BitCoin BOOM….
A correction is likely on the horizon
Cryptocurrencies are the currency of choice for money laundering, criminals, hackers
What if a country such as the United States banned or prohibited cryptocurrency ? it would be worthless overnight
Hackability of Bitcoin –  https://cheddar.com/videos/the-hackability-of-bitcoin
NiceHash  – $52 million worth of Bitcoin mysteriously disappeared 
company lets users sell their computer power to help users mine bitcoin
Many customers learned CTO recently served prison time- for running Darkode – a botnet
Uber debacle – 57 million uber customers personal information compromised
paid $100k to cover it up and disguised it as a bug bounty
** LATEST:  Uber accused of illegal itelligence gathering
impersonating drivers, bugging private events, Uber accused of stealing trade secrets
Uber had policy to destroy / conceal / falsify government investigations
Mirai IoT Botnet  (175,000 IoT devices)
** UPDATE: two creators plead guilty
Rutgers graduate – bit Minecraft adict
Oct 2016 blocked access to Twitter, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, PayPal, Reddit
they took control of IoT devices such as security cameras, routers to knock off web sites with DDoS attacks
21 and 20 year old from PA & NJ
Irony – they founded a company that specialized in mitigating large scale DDoS attacks
** they targeted companies with DDoS attacks then extort for money and also provide services to combat the attacks

Ransomware is alive and well in 2017 what will 2018 look like ?

Ransomware payments in 2017 hit 2 Billion (twice that of 2016)
2018 estimates of a growing trend business email scams $9 billion expected
LOOK Back at 2017 breaches
Equifax – largest 145 million people had their data compromised including SS#’s
waited 2 months till they revealed the hack
Do not know still who breached Equifax
Yahoo – ALL 3 Billion of it’s customers accounts were hacked
now owned by Verizon (Yahoo originally reported 1B accounts compromised)
Do Not know who breached Yahoo still
WannaCry – massive hack affecting 150 countries, with 300,000 computers ransomed demanding $$ to unlock files
Thought to have originated out of North Korea
In October US Dept of Education warned K-12 teachers/staff/parents cyber threats targeting school districts
hackers sent threatening text messages as part of the extortion
some schools were closed for 3 days
For full show notes, check out ComputerAmerica.com!