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The Detroit Land Bank Authority nor the City of Detroit Board of Examiners of Wrecking Contractors discriminates against minorities and I truly wish people would stop reducing the actions of these entities to an issue of gender or skin color.

The Detroit Land Bank Authority and the City of Detroit Board of Examiners of Wrecking Contracts procures based upon the content of corporate character, a content of corporate character which promotes an ethical culture of fraud, that is!

If they actually handed out contracts to Detroit contractors, notice I did not hyphenate "Detroit-based" which means the corporate filings have a Detroit address and does not necessarily physically resided within the city boundaries, then they could not submit false claims to the U.S. Treasury, because those Detroit contractors would probably blow the whistle on them and hold them accountable to the communities.

DUH!

Perhaps, just perhaps, City Council should be more concerned about the content of fraud within the entire demolition procurement program over the levels of melanin content of a contractor's epidermis and genotype because the Detroit Land Bank Authority never incorporated and exists as a Corporate Shape Shifter.

Just a suggestion.

Concerns raised about contractors sitting on Detroit wrecking board

The appointment of two contractors — one currently suspended from bidding in Detroit's demolition program— to a board that awards wrecking licenses in the city is raising questions about whether it's a conflict of interest for them to see the inner workings of potential competitors during the application process.

The city's Board of Examiners for Wrecking Contractors is comprised of seven members, two of whom are Richard Adamo, the owner of Adamo Group, and Michael Farrow, owner of Farrow Group. The remaining members include employees of the Buildings Safety Engineering Department, Detroit residents and an engineer.

Adamo is the largest contractor in Detroit's demolition program and has received more than $40 million since 2014 in federal Hardest Hit Fund money, the Free Press reported in June.

City spokesperson Tiffany Crawford said Richard Adamo was appointed to the board in May 2017, replacing his brother, John T. Adamo Jr., the former president of Adamo Group.

John T. Adamo Jr. died in a November 2015 Ohio construction accident.

Farrow, who has not bid on any work in nearly a year, has received about $2.6 million and has been on the board since 2010. Farrow could not immediately be reached for comment.

Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning said the city allowing board members to also be active bidders within the city's demolition program is an "odd way to set up a review system."

 "Someone who's bidding and also has some say as to who the competing bidders are — that's a classic conflict of interest," Henning said. "Even if you try to do the best job you can, whoever gets the contract could be taking money out of your wallet. Typically, you would have people that don't have any interest in the underlying contract or agreement or whatever it is."

In addition to federally funded demolitions through the Detroit Land Bank Authority, Adamo and Farrow both have also performed city-funded demolition work in recent years.

Unlike other board appointments required to go before City Council for approval, wrecking board members are appointed by Mayor Mike Duggan to serve three-year terms, with no other approval needed.

"The City Council only approves those appointments where required by city ordinance or statute," Crawford said in a statement to the Free Press. "In this instance, pursuant to Section 12-11.20.0, City Council is not required to approve the seven members of the Wrecking Board."

In order to perform any kind of demolition work of residential or commercial structures in Detroit, companies are required to obtain a wrecking license.

Among its chief responsibilities, the board, in addition to recommending who gets wrecking licenses, also has the power to recommend license suspensions and revocations.

According to wrecking license requirements outlined in an application reviewed by the Free Press, applicants must be approved by the board. The application includes information about company officers, previous experience, equipment, insurance and more. The board has approved 38 licenses within the past five years.

Henning said it's understandable to want individuals with relevant experience but typically, "you're not allowed to bid when you're a member of the board."

"If nothing else, it creates just the appearance of a conflict of interest and that undermines public trust in the process," Henning said. "It doesn't mean anyone did anything wrong but people are going to look at it and have very serious questions about the process more than anything else. That's what's problematic."

City officials are slated to go before the Detroit City Council on Monday to discuss, in part, a June Free Press report that revealed the city's demolition program lacks diversity.

Adamo's company was suspended from bidding on city and Land Bank contracts for 90 days after it tore down the wrong home in May but Richard Adamo is still an active board member, city officials confirmed.

"Each company's wrecking license is under the purview of the wrecking board," Detroit Building Authority Special Projects Director Brian Farkas said in an email to the Free Press. "We have no authority to revoke or rescind a license. Adamo is still ineligible for the award of any demolition contracts ...  until August."

 In an interview with the Free Press, City Council member Roy McCalister Jr. said, "It's unbelievable and a conflict of interest. If a person is suspended, that means they've done something unethical. My question is, if you're suspended, how can you do this type of business?"

Adamo's attorney Christian Hauser, in a statement to the Free Press, said the board's composition "has been established for decades" and his client has not had access to any information that would give him an edge.

"Richard Adamo is a volunteer member due to his expansive knowledge and familiarity with the demolition process, and in particular, the requirements mandated by the City of Detroit for both commercial and residential demolition," Hauser said. "During his tenure on the Board, there has never once been a situation where Mr. Adamo has been privy to information that would provide his company with a competitive advantage.”

David Bell, director of Detroit's Buildings Safety Engineering Department, said he takes the board's recommendations and makes a final decision on granting licenses or suspensions.

The Board falsely advises David Bell,  That sounds like part of the ongoing federal investigations...the ones in D.C. and across the world in other nation states, and not the federal ongoing investigation of the Detroit Land Bank Authority by SIGTARP.

On second thought, the Detroit Land Bank Authority SIGTARP report was included in the DOJ OIG report, so, perhaps it is the same.

When asked whether he thought Adamo should step aside during the remainder of his suspension, Bell said: "I can't really speak to his suspension. ... I have to look at it further. It might be that it's not relevant. I've got to look into it."

As part of the application process, applicants submit supporting documentation that shows they meet the requirements laid out in Ordinance 290-H, which details wrecking rules. Buildings Safety employees then verify the documentation before scheduling a verbal oral examination with the board.

Applicants meet with the board, which questions them about their experience. The board then recommends applicants to take the exam for Class A or Class B licenses. Class A licenses require applicants to show experience elsewhere tearing down structures of unlimited height. Class B license holders are limited to wrecking buildings up to three stories or 35 feet.

Bell said the board has been in place since 1964 and until now, he has never heard any concerns about the board's makeup.

"I believe it's been working," Bell said. "I've been with this department for 20 years and this is the first time to my knowledge the question has been brought out. ... I think what the board has been doing throughout the years has been ethical. I have not seen anything that has not been ethical."

Bell said the ordinance pertaining to the board requires two members to be Building Safety employees, two Detroit residents, two licensed contractors and one engineer.

"The ordinance does not specify that the wreckers have to be retired so because it doesn't specify that, we don't see a reason why they have to be retired," Bell said. "The board makes the recommendation to me, and again, no one has come before the board who was qualified and not gotten their license."

Bell said quite a few board members have had their terms renewed but he couldn't comment on how the appointments are made.

The administration didn’t directly respond to a request for comment but instead authorized Bell to speak on behalf of the city.

"They are appointed by the mayor's office," Bell said. "I have to defer to the mayor's office on that whole process."

Bell said the city's position is the appointments don't present any ethical issues.

 "You've got only two people that are on the board that may have or could possibly have a motive to deny but again if the people who come before us meet the requirements, we're going to approve them," Bell said.

But McCalister said he believes changes need to be made to the how the board operates.

"If you're involved in the advisory of who gets licenses and then you're part of the bidding to get contracts, you know everything you have to in order to get the contract," McCalister said. "And just because it's been in place since the '60s, doesn't mean that's right. There needs to be some changes to make it equal."

Bell said the ordinance that lays out who is on the board is part of a building code approved by council.

"Any changes council wants to make to this ordinance ...  I am open to that discussion," Bell said. "Council makes all ordinances to my knowledge and we abide by them. So, if council changed the ordinance, then we're going to abide by it."

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CYBER CRIME :  Former GCHQ worker Jamie Jamieson has put a ‘notice of correction’ on his credit file requiring a thumbprint for all credit applications
dentity theft has reached epidemic levels, but a retired GCHQ worker has taken matters into his own hands, literally, with what he claims is a foolproof way of beating fraudsters. Jamie Jamieson uses his thumbprint to protect himself from ID thieves and suggests anyone worried about falling victim to this crime should follow his example.
The foolproof way you can stop ID fraud

His system costs nothing and is low-tech; it has also received a partial endorsement from one of the UK’s leading experts on credit reporting.

For 13 years now, the 69-year-old has added his thumbprint to any application for credit, whether it’s a mobile phone contract, credit card, loan or mortgage. Crucially, he has also put a note on his credit file that states that if his signature is required for any financial product or service, it must be authenticated by his thumbprint. Any application for credit in his name that doesn’t carry his thumbprint must be turned down by the lender, the note says.


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“If modern technology isn’t working, why not use something as simple as this?” says Jamieson, who worked at the government’s monitoring agency for 25 years. “I and others using the system have never fallen victim to ID theft.”

There are several advantages to this method, he says. If someone steals his identity and uses it to fraudulently take out a loan or credit card in his name, he can hold the lender responsible. If there was no thumbprint on the application the lender should not have granted it and it would be 100% the lender’s problem, he says. That’s because credit providers are required to read such notes on people’s credit files when they make an application. So they can’t plead ignorance.

If there was a thumbprint on the paperwork and it was not Jamieson’s, it would be easy for him to prove as such. And, of course, it means anyone trying to get a loan in his name would have to give their own thumbprint. Would a fraudster, when confronted with a demand for a print, really provide it, given that it could be passed to the police? There is a UK-wide database called IDENT1 that contains millions of fingerprints of people who have come into contact with the police, which officers investigating crimes are able to search to see if they can get a match.

 Jamie Jamieson, a former GCHQ worker, has added his thumbprint to his credit file
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 Jamie Jamieson, a former GCHQ worker, has added his thumbprint to his credit file. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
There is a downside to the scheme, however: it could delay genuine credit applications. But if you don’t apply for much credit you may feel this is a price worth paying.


Although Jamieson’s idea might sound a little off-the-wall, it’s fair to say that the country’s top financial security experts have yet to find a way to stem the rising tide of ID theft. Last month the UK’s fraud prevention service, Cifas, revealed that during the first six months of this year there were a record 89,000 cases of identity fraud, which typically involves criminals pretending to be individuals in order to buy items or take out financial products in their name. The true figure is almost certainly higher, as some people are too embarrassed to admit they have been scammed.

The figures show a sharp rise in identity fraudsters applying for loans, with 11,499 recorded incidents in the six-month period. That is 54% up on the same period last year.

Cifas says: “We have seen identity fraud attempts increase year on year and they are now reaching epidemic levels.” Victims often do not realise they have been targeted until a bill arrives for something they didn’t buy or they have problems with their credit rating.


Jamieson came up with the thumbprint idea in 2004 after being inspired by a scheme in Inverness and other locations in the early 2000s, a few years before the introduction of chip and pin technology in shops and restaurants. The Inverness thumbprint signature scheme was designed to deter card and cheque fraud, and more than 300 businesses in the Scottish city signed up. People paying for goods with a card or cheque were asked to provide their “thumbprint signature” on the till receipt or the cheque (an ink-less gel was used so it didn’t leave a mark). It was hugely successful: the local police reported that in six months the number of incidents involving card fraud had fallen by 84%, while cheque fraud was down 71%. But the move to chip and pin arguably removed the need for such an initiative.

Jamieson, who lives in Scarborough, adapted that idea for his scheme. He latched on to the “notice of correction” which is a short statement people can add to their credit report. It is usually put on to explain something – for example, it might say that you missed a credit card payment, but it was a one-off because you had been made redundant. And anyone can add a notice of correction saying their thumbprint is required on credit applications.

It’s workable if you’re not ‘credit active’ ... it does have merits in certain circumstances
Neil Munroe, credit expert
Jamieson wrote a notice of correction to that effect (see box) and sent it to the three main credit reference agencies – Experian, Equifax and Callcredit – which added it to the reports they hold on him. In 2007 Equifax gave his initiative its backing, but Jamieson says: “Credit reference agencies and financial institutions should be publicising this. It doesn’t prove you are who you say you are instantly, but it deters someone from pretending to be you. It can prove your innocence while helping to detect a thief. And it acts as a warning to banks and lenders of a possible fraud attempt.”

Neil Munroe, an expert on credit reporting, says: “It’s workable if you’re not ‘credit active’. That’s where Jamieson is coming from, he wants to protect himself. I wouldn’t necessarily advocate it for everyone, but it does have merits in certain circumstances.”


So what are the downsides? The biggest is that if there is a notice of correction on your credit file, a credit application has to be processed manually. Experian says of Jamieson’s scheme: “The industry generally doesn’t recommend this, particularly with the prominence of online applications.” It says that adding a fingerprint request means applications can’t be processed automatically, so they are referred to an individual to be manually reviewed, thereby prolonging the process. However, Experian suggests that if someone has recently been a victim of identity fraud, or there is a high risk of them being defrauded, they could add a notice of correction password to their credit report.

Munroe believes the thumbprint scheme might not be suitable for people who make a lot of applications or younger customers who want credit quickly. However, Jamieson says it doesn’t always cause delays. When he took out a mobile phone contract at Carphone Warehouse a couple of years ago, the credit provider, which must have seen his note, asked to speak to him on the shop’s phone. He signed and thumbprinted the credit agreement there and then, which was accepted. “Would you do that in a shop if you were using stolen information?” he says.

 Using a thumbprint for all credit applications could protect you from fraudsters. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
Jamieson sent a notice of correction to the three main credit reference agencies. It states: “I, Jamie Jamieson, of [his address], do hereby declare that when my signature is required for any financial product or service, I will authenticate it with my thumbprint. Failure by me to comply with this direction should result in the service or product being withheld. Any application without a thumbprint should be considered fraudulent. I will inform you in writing, signed and thumbprinted, of any changes to this notice of correction.”

To follow his example you should include your full name, address, date of birth and contact details. You may be able to submit the notice online or via email. Experian, Equifax and Callcredit also have postal addresses.
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CYBER CRIME :  Customers complain about ‘eerie’ personalised spam emails and lack of communication from pizza seller
Domino’s Australia has blamed a system “issue” of a former supplier for a leak of customer personal information to spam email lists.

The pizza seller has called in the Australian information commissioner to investigate the breach but insists its systems haven’t been compromised. Instead, it blames a “former supplier’s systems” for leaking customer email addresses, names and store suburb.

“Domino’s acted quickly to contain the information when it became aware of the issue and has commenced a detailed review process,” an undated statement posted on the company’s website reads.

The company did not say when it first became aware of the issue and insists no financial information has been accessed.

Customers complained on social media about the “eerie” personalised emails and the lack of communication from Domino’s Australia.


“It was a bit eery [sic] getting all these spam emails that somehow knew my name and suburb and initially were making it past the spam filter,” Mitchell Dale posted on Domino’s Facebook page.

“The decision to try to keep me in the dark and not announce what had happened is why I will not be ordering Dominos again.”

“Nothing better than waking up finding out your data has been breached,” Dylan James posted on Facebook. “Why haven’t you informed anyone yet?”

“I won’t be ordering from you again, not because of the breach but because of how you chose to handle it,” Lara Douglas posted.

Mandatory data breach notification laws will come into effect in February 2018, meaning organisations like Domino’s will have to notify customers of any data breaches.

The assistant minister for cybersecurity, Dan Tehan, advised people to watch for suspicious messages, links and attachments. “You should always be suspicious of unsolicited emails requesting personal or financial information,” he said.

Domino’s Australia says it ceased working with the former supplier in July.
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CYBER CRIME :  WPA2 protocol used by vast majority of wifi connections has been broken by Belgian researchers, highlighting potential for internet traffic to be exposed
All wifi networks' are vulnerable to hacking, security expert discovers

The security protocol used to protect the vast majority of wifi connections has been broken, potentially exposing wireless internet traffic to malicious eavesdroppers and attacks, according to the researcher who discovered the weakness.

Mathy Vanhoef, a security expert at Belgian university KU Leuven, discovered the weakness in the wireless security protocol WPA2, and published details of the flaw on Monday morning.

“Attackers can use this novel attack technique to read information that was previously assumed to be safely encrypted,” Vanhoef’s report said. “This can be abused to steal sensitive information such as credit card numbers, passwords, chat messages, emails, photos and so on.

Vanhoef emphasised that “the attack works against all modern protected wifi networks. Depending on the network configuration, it is also possible to inject and manipulate data. For example, an attacker might be able to inject ransomware or other malware into websites.”

The vulnerability affects a number of operating systems and devices, the report said, including Android, Linux, Apple, Windows, OpenBSD, MediaTek, Linksys and others.

“If your device supports wifi, it is most likely affected,” Vanhoef wrote. “In general, any data or information that the victim transmits can be decrypted … Additionally, depending on the device being used and the network setup, it is also possible to decrypt data sent towards the victim (e.g. the content of a website).”

Vanhoef gave the weakness the codename Krack, short for Key Reinstallation AttaCK.

Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre said in a statement it was examining the vulnerability. “Research has been published today into potential global weaknesses to wifi systems. The attacker would have to be physically close to the target and the potential weaknesses would not compromise connections to secure websites, such as banking services or online shopping.

“We are examining the research and will be providing guidance if required. Internet security is a key NCSC priority and we continuously update our advice on issues such as wifi safety, device management and browser security.”

The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (Cert) issued a warning on Sunday in response to the vulnerability.

“The impact of exploiting these vulnerabilities includes decryption, packet replay, TCP connection hijacking, HTTP content injection and others,” the alert says, detailing a number of potential attacks. It adds that, since the vulnerability is in the protocol itself, rather than any specific device or software, “most or all correct implementations of the standard will be affected”.

 Insecure connections to websites should be considered public, and viewable to any other user on the network, until the vulnerability is fixed.
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 Insecure connections to websites should be considered public, and viewable to any other user on the network, until the vulnerability is fixed. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
The development is significant because the compromised security protocol is the most secure in general use to encrypt wifi connections. Older security standards have been broken in the past, but on those occasions a successor was available and in widespread use.

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Crucially, the attack is unlikely to affect the security of information sent over the network that is protected in addition to the standard WPA2 encryption. This means connections to secure websites are still safe, as are other encrypted connections such as virtual private networks (VPN) and SSH communications.

However, insecure connections to websites – those which do not display a padlock icon in the address bar, indicating their support for HTTPS – should be considered public, and viewable to any other user on the network, until the vulnerability is fixed.

Equally, home internet connections will remain difficult to fully secure for quite some time. Many wireless routers are infrequently if ever updated, meaning that they will continue to communicate in an insecure manner. However, Vanhoef says, if the fix is installed on a phone or computer, that device will still be able to communicate with an insecure router. That means even users with an unpatched router should still fix as many devices as they can, to ensure security on other networks.

Alex Hudson, the chief technical officer of subscription service Iron, said that it is important to “keep calm”.

“There is a limited amount of physical security already on offer by wifi: an attack needs to be in proximity,” Hudson wrote. “So, you’re not suddenly vulnerable to everyone on the internet. It’s very weak protection, but this is important when reviewing your threat level.

“Additionally, it’s likely that you don’t have too many protocols relying on WPA2 security. Every time you access an HTTPS site … your browser is negotiating a separate layer of encryption. Accessing secure websites over wifi is still totally safe. Hopefully – but there is no guarantee – you don’t have much information going over your network that requires the encryption WPA2 provides.”

There’s likely to be a delay before the vulnerability is used to actually attack networks in the wild, says Symantec researcher Candid Wuest. “It’s quite a complex attack to carry out in practice, but we’ve seen similar before, so we know it’s possible to automate.



“Small businesses and people at home should be concerned, but not too worried,” Wuest added, advising most users to simply apply the updates to their software as and when it becomes available.

The most important lesson from the weakness, he said, was that relying on any one security feature is risky. “You shouldn’t be trusting one single point of failure for all your security. Don’t rely on just your wifi, use a VPN or secure connection for anything important.”

Different devices and operating systems are impacted to differing degrees based on how they implement the WPA2 protocol. Among the worst hit are Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) and Linux, due to a further bug that results in the encryption key being rewritten to all-zeros; iOS and Windows, meanwhile, are among the most secure, since they don’t fully implement the WPA2 protocol. No tested device or piece of software was fully immune to the weakness, however.

The international Cert group, based at Carnegie Mellon University, informed technology companies of the flaw on 28 August, meaning that most have had around a month and a half to implement a fix. The Guardian has asked Apple, Google, Microsoft and Linksys the status of their patches. Google said: “We’re aware of the issue, and we will be patching any affected devices in the coming weeks.” Microsoft said: “We have released a security update to address this issue. Customers who apply the update, or have automatic updates enabled, will be protected.” No other vendor has replied at press time.
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CYBER CRIME :  A cybercriminal is an individual who commits cybercrimes, where he/she makes use of the computer either as a tool or as a target or as both.

Cybercriminals use computers in three broad ways:
CYBER CRIME

Select computer as their target: These criminals attack other people's computers to perform malicious activities, such as spreading viruses, data theft, identity theft, etc.
Uses computer as their weapon: They use the computer to carry out "conventional crime", such as spam, fraud, illegal gambling, etc.
Uses computer as their accessory: They use the computer to save stolen or illegal data.
Stop Ransomware Mid-Flight


Techopedia explains Cybercriminal

Cybercriminals often work in organized groups. Some cybercriminal roles are:

Programmers: Write code or programs used by cybercriminal organization
Distributors: Distribute and sell stolen data and goods from associated cybercriminals
IT experts: Maintain a cybercriminal organization's IT infrastructure, such as servers, encryption technologies and databases
Hackers: Exploit systems, applications and network vulnerabilities
Fraudsters: Create and deploy schemes like spam and phishing
System hosts and providers: Host sites and servers that possess illegal contents
Cashiers: Provide account names to cybercriminals and control drop accounts
Money mules: Manage bank account wire transfers
Tellers: Transfer and launder illegal money via digital and foreign exchange methods
Leaders: Often connected to big bosses of large criminal organizations. Assemble and direct cybercriminal teams, and usually lack technical knowledge.
Clearly, there is much overlap between roles, but as cybercrime becomes a greater issue, more specialization is being seen as organized crime gets in the picture. For example, hackers were once more often than not hobbyists who broke into systems for personal gratification. While white-hat hacking hasn't disappeared, it's much more common now to see hackers as professionals who sell their services to the highest bidder.
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