ceoln @ceoln@social.cleverlibre.org

Hey everybody, it's @threatresearch taking control of the Sophos X-Ops Mastodon feed with an update about the #research I've been working on for several weeks with my Labs and #MDR colleagues, just published this morning.

In February, a #tax #accounting firm reached out to us about a strange email exchange they had (and the aftermath), and the more we started digging, the more we found.

The big takeaway is that an unknown threat actor group appears to have been targeting the kinds of small- to medium-sized businesses that perform tax preparation services in the United States with a social engineering method that kept their activities under the radar...until it delivered #malware to those targets. The campaign seemed to start in late January and has ramped up significantly in the past few weeks. There are thousands of CPA and accounting businesses in the US and this is their busiest time of the year, and they handle a lot of financially sensitive documents.

The delivery method was a type of malware called #GuLoader, and the payload was a commodity #RAT malware called #remcos

A short thread begins here:

https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2023/04/13/tax-firms-targeted-by-precision-malware-attacks/

Smile! #aiart #aiartcommunity #midjourney #aiia

The term 'microaggressions' has been around since 1970. Many have heard the term, but do we know what it means? And if we know what it means, do we understand the impact these slights and biases have on the affected communities?

Microaggressions are pebbles in the pond of society. The initial impact may be minor, but it does have a ripple effect. How can we identify microaggressions and counteract them? Read more at #TheBigPicture: https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/microaggressions-primer-racism-sexism-ableism

Don't miss out on the chance to witness the cherry blossom petals fall at the Hanami Celebration in Belliseria at the Shobu region in Second Life. https://youtu.be/IgMUR-rAjoY

Video by Vrutega

#SecondLife #SecondLifeDestinations #VirtualWorld #Metaverse #Machinima #Shobu #Hanami

New paper on auditing Elon's early impact on Twitter.
- Hateful users became more hateful
- Hate increased dramatically
- There was no overall change in bots

Paper (accepted to ICWSM 2023) is here:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.04129

Since it's about that time when professors are thinking about fall coursebooks, I just wanted to let you all know about our (free) open-access book: https://patentlawcasebook.com/

And if you'd like to add one day on design patents to any IP course, we have a separate (and also free) supplement for that:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3890945

#LawProfs #LawFedi #PatentFedi #Patents #PatentCasebooks

NEW: We spoke to one of the hackers behind the hack on Western Digital.

They claimed to have stolen customer data, that the goal was to make money, and that they tried to establish contact with the company with the goal of asking "a minimum 8 figures."

We believe this person really is part of the hacking group because they provided a file signed with Western Digital's code-signing certificate, non-public phone numbers of company executives, and a screenshot of a video call featuring the company's CISO.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/13/hackers-claim-vast-access-to-western-digital-systems/

Starting at 2pm ET, ProPublica's @elliottjustin will start answering questions about his #ClarenceThomas reporting in an AMA over at Reddit.

Get your questions in now:

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/12kw44n/im_justin_elliott_one_of_the_propublica_reporters/

There's a housing crisis in many cities. But cars can park free. Why not claim public street-space for those who need it? If you disguise your shelter as a polluting, duly-licensed private vehicle, like artist Michael Rakowitz did...
...the authorities should be fine with it.

More on this thought-provoking art project here:

http://www.michaelrakowitz.com/plot-proposition-i

If these aren’t the droids you’re looking for, love the droids you’re with.

Weird thing, book #1 of my Patterner's Path book series has fewer reviews than the final one, book #4.

But I know why and it's not a complaint.

People start on the Dragons of Esternes, read all those, then go to Patterner's Path. By this time they know the series is really just one story, plough through, and review/rate at the end.

These are the best reviews. I wonder what will happen when I finish the next linked series...

#amWriting #writingCommunity @bookstodon

1. Across the country, right-wing activists and politicians are pushing to ban hundreds of books from libraries.

It started off with school libraries, but now there are efforts to remove books from public libraries as well

Then they ran into a problem: The First Amendment

🧵

#OtD 13 Apr 1985 Danuta Danielsson, the Polish-Jewish daughter of a Holocaust survivor, hit a neo-Nazi on the head with her handbag in Växjö, Sweden. The Nazis were then chased out of town. We have some anti-fascist merch here to help fund our work: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/anti-fascist

So far, #Mastodon has already survived (and thrived!) for six years after the illustrious "Six reasons Mastodon won't survive" piece got published:
https://mashable.com/article/mastodon-wont-survive

Remember this any time you see some galaxy-brained think piece on how Mastodon "is dying" or how #Fediverse is "not viable."

Apologies I missed the exact anniversary, it was already eight days ago! 🤯

Point: over these eight days, Fediverse has grown by ~125k *active* accounts.

Had a stupid idea. It worked. Thanks, ChatGPT!
---

Here is a list of items of regalia belonging to the Crown Jewels, with descriptions as if they were magical items in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign:

Oh look, @Vox is here! Welcome!

From: @Vox
https://mstdn.social/@Vox/110191642596809099

An absolutely unhinged Product Hunt post said that in the future people will have more bot friends than human friends. I had no choice but to rant about it. https://buttondown.email/justinpot/archive/are-the-tech-brosokay-pls-dont-replace-your/

ST:TNG s19e03: Stay the Hand of Creation

PICARD: Captain's log, Stardate 56913.2.

The Enterprise has been despatched to the Gamma Excedrin sector, where we are following up on reports of the discovery of an archaeological artifact: the “Torment Nexus”, rumored to have been created by a long-dead powerful civilization…

Who's writing about ChatGPT and trademark law?

Specifically, the use of LLM search-like chatbots to generate results that implicate TM through text-based responses, not through creation of new infringing IP?

#LawFedi #FediLaw #LawProfs #LawProf

I can really relate with books. I also have been persecuted by religious prudes and banned from public libraries upon accusations of being "obscene" and "ruinously drunk" and of "challenging a poster of LeVar Burton to a fist fight"