Dose of Paranoia - 2024-12-27
It gets worse before it gets worse
We are now well into the week where I annoy my wife by continually stating that “this is the last time I will be <insert action here> this year.” And now I can add that this is the last Dose of Paranoia for 2024 - I hope you are having as much fun reading this as I am having annoying Amy. I am happy to report that I anticipate that 2025 will provide plenty of material for me to rant about.
First off this week, my salutations to the Macquarie Dictionary (Australia’s national dictionary) on their spot on choice for 2024 Word of the Year.
Actually Important Stuff
Yeah, Bird Flu again - More cases (still in single digits) are being seen, and some mutations which might indicate enhanced potential for human to human transmission have been identified - in Louisiana (where state health officials have recently been forbidden from promoting vaccines - yeah, that’s gonna work out well). The chances of another pandemic in the New Year seem to be on the rise - while we still may dodge this bullet, my spidey sense is starting to tingle and I would recommend that companies/organizations dust off their pandemic plans, take a look, and identify lessons learned from the last time around while assuming that an even more corrupt and dysfunctional federal government will be even less prepared to provide help. As for individuals, keeping hand sanitizers and N95 masks around, having some non perishable food and supplies on hand, and keeping a close eye on reliable sources of news are reasonable preparatory steps for now. No need to panic, but better safe than sorry.
Infosec / Scam Stuff
Honey ain’t always so sweet - Honey is a browser extension which claims to automagically find discount codes for you as you shop on the Interwebs. Except it doesn’t - in fact, it actually prevents users from seeing the best discount codes for its partner merchants. Oh, and as icing on the cake, it steals money from the influencers that it uses to promote this scam. And if you were wondering what shady, fly by night, backroom company runs this mess, well it is a small outfit called PayPal. If we were not about to change administrations to one run by a convicted felon and conman, I would think that they were in for a heap of regulatory trouble. But I think that this is just a preview of how we can expect businesses to act going forward.
Kiddie CounterStrike Casinos - Apparently, billions of dollars are being made in online casinos which provide minors (and money launders) with the opportunity to enter the wonderful world of online gambling with no age or KYC checks. If your kids are playing CounterStrike, they may also be watching YouTube/Twitch influencers being paid millions of dollars to promote casinos which accept game weapon “skins” as currency for slots, card games, and more. This has been going on for years - YouTube investigative journalist Coffeezilla has some great videos on this topic on his channel, which is a fantastic place to learn about all sorts of crypto and other scams. Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3
Hijacking trucks is sooo 20th century - This NY Post article seems to describe criminals using business email compromise techniques on trucking firms to redirect shipments of valuable goods from their intended destinations to locations controlled by the fraudsters. This seems a lot less risky than old school truck hijacking.
What’s the password? - Some good advice from Wired magazine - given the prevalence of AI assisted deepfake scams in which criminal dirtbags attempt to convince victims that they are family members needing assistance, you should set up a password with family members to verify that they are who they say they are. Deepfake voice and even video clones can be really convincing and having a pre arranged secret word or phrase is a low tech, no cost, effective defense against losing out to scammers.
And, finally - someone should tell Asus that mysteriously hijacking 1/3 of their computer users’ screens with an unbranded Christmas themed banner spawned by a process called “christmas.exe” is not a good way to spread holiday cheer.
Fun Stuff
Here’s a heartwarming end of year story about the inventor of Sea Monkeys, who also made thousands from selling “invisible goldfish” and was a generally a huge racist. He’d probably be a Trump cabinet member if he was alive today. Come to think of it, the Sea Monkeys and Invisible Goldfish would be more qualified than most of the felon in chief’s appointees.
Gamers in Japan have saved a rare example of the largest CRT based monitor ever made (the $40,000, 45 inch, 440 pound Sony PVM-4300) so that they can play Duck Hunt with no video lag. It wasn’t easy.
If you are a map and history nerd like me, check out this cool interactive atlas which allows you to see how borders, battles, leaders, and peoples moved through out time.
Every hotel should have this amenity!
Documentary of the Week
Holmes Vs. Doyle is a fascinating three part BBC documentary airing on PBS detailing the story behind Arthur Conan Doyle and his most famous creation, super detective Sherlock Holmes. The relationship between author and character was complicated - Holmes made Doyle the most famous and highest paid author on the planet, but the author came to see his famous sleuth as a millstone around his literary neck. Definitely worth a watch!
So goodbye and good riddance to 2024 - although I think we will look back on 2024 fondly this time in 2025 - especially if these predictions from Bulgarian psychic Baba Vanga are accurate. Anyhow, best wishes for a Happy New Year for you and yours!