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Weekly Security Sprint EP 82. Assassination, BEC, and All-Hazards

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On this week’s Security Sprint, Dave and Andy covered the following:

  • TribalNet!
  • TLP:CLEAR | FB-ISAO Newsletter. The September 2024 Newsletter has been directly distributed to members and may be accessed here. 
    • The FB-ISAO Daily Awareness Post
    • Upcoming Commemorations and Notable Events
    • SPOTLIGHT: The President’s Volunteer Service Award
Main Topics

Election Security: 

Business Email Compromise: The $55 Billion Scam. The BEC scam continues to target small local businesses to larger corporations, and personal transactions while evolving in their techniques to access those business or personal accounts. Between December 2022 and December 2023, there was a 9% increase in identified global exposed losses. In 2023, the IC3 saw a growth in BEC reporting where funds were sent directly to a financial institution housing custodial accounts held by third-party payment processors, or peer-to-peer payment processors, and cryptocurrency exchanges which directly contributed to the increase in global exposed losses. IC3 data shows the BEC scam has been reported in all 50 states and 186 countries, with over 140 countries receiving fraudulent transfers. Based on the financial data reported to the IC3 for 2023, international banks located in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong often acted as an intermediary stop for funds, followed by China, Mexico, and the UAE. The following BEC statistics were reported to the FBI IC3, law enforcement and derived from filings with financial institutions between October 2013 and December 2023:

  • Domestic and international incidents: 305,033 
  • Domestic and international exposed dollar loss: $55,499,915,582
  • Total U.S. victims: 158,436 
  • Total U.S. exposed dollar loss: $20,089,561,364 
  • Total non-U.S. victims: 6,546 
  • Total non-U.S. exposed dollar loss: $1,638,490,375

The disaster no major U.S. city is prepared for. Experts warn this type of catastrophe — a combined power outage with a heat wave — is a scenario that cities and states are unprepared for. “I don’t think it’s likely — I think it’s an absolute certainty,” said Brian Stone, a professor and director of the Urban Climate Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “I think it’s an absolute certainty that we will have an extreme heat wave and an extended blackout in the United States.”

Quick Hits

    Read more about Gate 15’s full podcast menu at our Podcast page. You can subscribe and enjoy all the Gate 15 Podcasts on Spotify for Podcasters, Apple, Spotify, as well as other locations accessible from the Spotify for Podcasters link. Week-to-week, you can hear and learn more about our all-hazards threats, risks, mitigation and other issues impacting homeland security risk management from our team as well as our regular and special guests. The full podcast menu includes:

    • The Security Sprint is our weekly rundown of the week’s notable all-hazards security news, risks and threats and some of the key focus areas for organizations to consider behind the headlines. Gate 15 team members discuss physical security, cybersecurity, natural hazards, health threats and other issues across our environment.
    • Nerd Out! Security Panel Discussion, moderated by Dave Pounder, focuses on physical security topics including terrorism, extremism, hostile events, and other pertinent topics.
    • The Gate 15 Interview, is a monthly interview between Gate 15’s founder and Managing Director, Andy Jabbour and guests from throughout the homeland security risk management community addressing a wide range of all-hazards topics and issues.
    • Venue Security, The IAVM Podcast Series is our newest podcast as Gate 15’s founder and Managing Director, Andy Jabbour hosts short interviews with venue safety and security experts from the International Association of Venue Managers’ (IAVM) Venue Safety and Security Committee (VSSC) and other special guests from the IAVM community. 
    • The Cybersecurity Evangelist, with Jennifer Lyn Walker, is a cybersecurity-focused discussion with Jen and invited guests. This is presently a Gate 15 special podcast and occasionally is updated on our Gate 15 podcast channel.
    • The Risk Roundtable, was a monthly discussion among our team and occasional guests exploring the all-hazards threats and risks impacting the United States and internationally. This was suspended in September 2023.

    We hope you’ll subscribe, listen and share your ideas and other feedback! Reach out to us on Threads,  LinkedIn, via email at [email protected].

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