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Hackers Use QR Codes to Steal Your Money

The use of QR codes rose during the pandemic and hackers took advantage of the opportunity to steal financial data.

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The use of QR codes rose during the pandemic and hackers took advantage of the opportunity to steal financial data.

QR codes with their square barcode regained their popularity when the pandemic began because consumers found them easy to use and businesses did not have to worry about contamination from contact.

Many companies, especially restaurants started using QR or Quick Response codes and swapped them out for menus since customers could scan them from their smartphones within a few seconds. Other industries adopted QR codes for coupons, bills or to learn more information about a topic or person. Coinbase ( (COIN) ), the cryptocurrency exchange platform, even shelled out nearly $14 million for a 30-second Super Bowl commercial in January that only featured a QR code.

As demand for QR codes rose, cybersecurity criminals also noticed the opportunity to steal personal or financial data from a consumer and earn a quick payday.

“Anything consumers will use and trust will eventually be used by hackers,” John Bambenek, principal threat hunter at Netenrich, a San Jose, California-based digital IT and security operations company, told TheStreet. “Criminals will use anything they can to steal a buck.”

Hackers are tampering with QR codes because their use has become widespread and tampering with them is simple, Hank Schless, senior manager, security solutions at Lookout, a San Francisco.-based security service edge provider, told TheStreet. Some contain malicious links embedded with malware so cybercriminals can easily obtain your data such as credit card information or social security number.

QR codes have made a resurgence since the pandemic, including event registration. They are just “another tactic hackers are using to get past traditional security services much like smishing where fraudulent text messages are sent from what appears to be a real company or phishing in Microsoft Teams, and Zoom,” Patrick Harr, CEO of SlashNext, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based anti phishing company, told TheStreet.

How To Scan QR Codes Safely

Consumers believe scanning QR codes are harmless, but they are actually “inherently untrustworthy,” Casey Ellis, CTO at Bugcrowd, a San Francisco-based crowdsourced cybersecurity company, told TheStreet.

“COVID has brought them into use cases where they are highly trusted,” he said. “Once you've gotten used to scanning a QR without thinking about it from a security standpoint, it becomes a pretty attractive payload delivery vehicle for attackers.”

Fraudsters are often one step ahead and devious in their strategies to lure unsuspecting people into scanning or clicking on a link. QR codes are used to sign into accounts, exchange contact information and make money transfers or provide contactless pay options.

QR phishing attacks are on the rise because they require so little effort to be successful. For one, the codes are physical displays, meaning a harmless one can easily be covered with a nefarious one that brings users to a malicious website. This makes it easy for cybercriminals to “display” the legitimate site that steals login credentials or installs malware.

Phishing is a common type of threat where hackers pretend to send emails from legitimate companies and ask for personal data.

“Threat actors have found that QR codes are one of the most effective ways to deliver malicious links so you need to understand that while QR codes make contactless interactions seamless, they also make it easy for attackers to send you malicious links,” Schless said. “Once a credential is stolen, it makes it easy for attackers to steal personal and corporate data alike.”

Always check the URL on the notification before clicking to be redirected, he recommends.

“If the URL does not look like a trusted source or differs from the known company’s URL, exit out of the notification,” Schless said. “I strongly recommend that you think about QR codes the same way you think about other phishing tactics like email scamming and social engineering.”

Attackers and pranksters have printed counterfeit QR code stickers and put them on top of existing QR codes, Ellis said.

“Having a quick look to see if the QR code looks out of place, seems to be a sticker when it shouldn't be, might help folks avoid risks,” he said.

Avoid These Tasks From a QR Code

QR codes are often used to present information and help consumers avoid typing in long strings of data such as account numbers legitimately. People should “exercise additional caution when being asked for sensitive information like credit card details, passwords and personal identifiable information,” Ellis said.

The FBI warned consumers in January that criminals were using QR codes to steal data, embed malware to gain access to the victim's device and redirect payment for cybercriminal use. Recovering money after it has been transferred can not be guaranteed, the FBI said.

“A victim scans what they think to be a legitimate code but the tampered code directs victims to a malicious site, which prompts them to enter login and financial information,” the FBI said. “Access to this victim information gives the cybercriminal the ability to potentially steal funds through victim accounts.”

Consumers should avoid downloading an app from a QR code and instead use the app store for a safer download, the FBI said. Another scam involves receiving an email stating a payment failed from a company where a recent purchase was made. If the company states “you can only complete the payment through a QR code, call the company to verify,” the FBI said.

Avoid downloading QR readers from a QR code because it is often a trick used by scammers “just like getting people to download fake antivirus on their laptops where the download app is actually malware,” Brian Contos, chief security officer of Phosphorus Cybersecurity, a Nashville.-based IoT security company, told TheStreet.

“It's a good practice not to download anything from a QR code scan,” he said. “Be skeptical and don't share sensitive information unless you are sure it's legitimate. A sticker or flier on a light pole should be sounding an alarm in your head. If someone is requesting a payment, on a parking ticket for example, you can trust that there are going to be multiple methods for someone to pay.”

One method that is gaining popularity is using QR codes for parking meters. The bar codes direct users to a website where they can enter their payment information or download an application to pay, Alex Hamerstone, director of advisory solutions at TrustedSec, a Strongsville, Ohio-based ethical hacking and cyber incident response company, told TheStreet.

“A scammer can create a QR code that directs to their scam website that looks authentic, print stickers with that QR code and place the stickers over the legitimate QR code to send users to their scam site and collect their bank and credit card information or other personal data.”

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Survey Shows Declining Concerns Among Americans About COVID-19

Survey Shows Declining Concerns Among Americans About COVID-19

A new survey reveals that only 20% of Americans view covid-19 as "a major threat"…

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Survey Shows Declining Concerns Among Americans About COVID-19

A new survey reveals that only 20% of Americans view covid-19 as "a major threat" to the health of the US population - a sharp decline from a high of 67% in July 2020.

(SARMDY/Shutterstock)

What's more, the Pew Research Center survey conducted from Feb. 7 to Feb. 11 showed that just 10% of Americans are concerned that they will  catch the disease and require hospitalization.

"This data represents a low ebb of public concern about the virus that reached its height in the summer and fall of 2020, when as many as two-thirds of Americans viewed COVID-19 as a major threat to public health," reads the report, which was published March 7.

According to the survey, half of the participants understand the significance of researchers and healthcare providers in understanding and treating long COVID - however 27% of participants consider this issue less important, while 22% of Americans are unaware of long COVID.

What's more, while Democrats were far more worried than Republicans in the past, that gap has narrowed significantly.

"In the pandemic’s first year, Democrats were routinely about 40 points more likely than Republicans to view the coronavirus as a major threat to the health of the U.S. population. This gap has waned as overall levels of concern have fallen," reads the report.

More via the Epoch Times;

The survey found that three in ten Democrats under 50 have received an updated COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 66 percent of Democrats ages 65 and older.

Moreover, 66 percent of Democrats ages 65 and older have received the updated COVID-19 vaccine, while only 24 percent of Republicans ages 65 and older have done so.

“This 42-point partisan gap is much wider now than at other points since the start of the outbreak. For instance, in August 2021, 93 percent of older Democrats and 78 percent of older Republicans said they had received all the shots needed to be fully vaccinated (a 15-point gap),” it noted.

COVID-19 No Longer an Emergency

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently issued its updated recommendations for the virus, which no longer require people to stay home for five days after testing positive for COVID-19.

The updated guidance recommends that people who contracted a respiratory virus stay home, and they can resume normal activities when their symptoms improve overall and their fever subsides for 24 hours without medication.

“We still must use the commonsense solutions we know work to protect ourselves and others from serious illness from respiratory viruses, this includes vaccination, treatment, and staying home when we get sick,” CDC director Dr. Mandy Cohen said in a statement.

The CDC said that while the virus remains a threat, it is now less likely to cause severe illness because of widespread immunity and improved tools to prevent and treat the disease.

Importantly, states and countries that have already adjusted recommended isolation times have not seen increased hospitalizations or deaths related to COVID-19,” it stated.

The federal government suspended its free at-home COVID-19 test program on March 8, according to a website set up by the government, following a decrease in COVID-19-related hospitalizations.

According to the CDC, hospitalization rates for COVID-19 and influenza diseases remain “elevated” but are decreasing in some parts of the United States.

Tyler Durden Sun, 03/10/2024 - 22:45

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International

Rand Paul Teases Senate GOP Leader Run – Musk Says “I Would Support”

Rand Paul Teases Senate GOP Leader Run – Musk Says "I Would Support"

Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul on Friday hinted that he may jump…

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Rand Paul Teases Senate GOP Leader Run - Musk Says "I Would Support"

Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul on Friday hinted that he may jump into the race to become the next Senate GOP leader, and Elon Musk was quick to support the idea. Republicans must find a successor for periodically malfunctioning Mitch McConnell, who recently announced he'll step down in November, though intending to keep his Senate seat until his term ends in January 2027, when he'd be within weeks of turning 86. 

So far, the announced field consists of two quintessential establishment types: John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota. While John Barrasso's name had been thrown around as one of "The Three Johns" considered top contenders, the Wyoming senator on Tuesday said he'll instead seek the number two slot as party whip. 

Paul used X to tease his potential bid for the position which -- if the GOP takes back the upper chamber in November -- could graduate from Minority Leader to Majority Leader. He started by telling his 5.1 million followers he'd had lots of people asking him about his interest in running...

...then followed up with a poll in which he predictably annihilated Cornyn and Thune, taking a 96% share as of Friday night, with the other two below 2% each. 

Elon Musk was quick to back the idea of Paul as GOP leader, while daring Cornyn and Thune to follow Paul's lead by throwing their names out for consideration by the Twitter-verse X-verse. 

Paul has been a stalwart opponent of security-state mass surveillance, foreign interventionism -- to include shoveling billions of dollars into the proxy war in Ukraine -- and out-of-control spending in general. He demonstrated the latter passion on the Senate floor this week as he ridiculed the latest kick-the-can spending package:   

In February, Paul used Senate rules to force his colleagues into a grueling Super Bowl weekend of votes, as he worked to derail a $95 billion foreign aid bill. "I think we should stay here as long as it takes,” said Paul. “If it takes a week or a month, I’ll force them to stay here to discuss why they think the border of Ukraine is more important than the US border.”

Don't expect a Majority Leader Paul to ditch the filibuster -- he's been a hardy user of the legislative delay tactic. In 2013, he spoke for 13 hours to fight the nomination of John Brennan as CIA director. In 2015, he orated for 10-and-a-half-hours to oppose extension of the Patriot Act

Rand Paul amid his 10 1/2 hour filibuster in 2015

Among the general public, Paul is probably best known as Capitol Hill's chief tormentor of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease during the Covid-19 pandemic. Paul says the evidence indicates the virus emerged from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology. He's accused Fauci and other members of the US government public health apparatus of evading questions about their funding of the Chinese lab's "gain of function" research, which takes natural viruses and morphs them into something more dangerous. Paul has pointedly said that Fauci committed perjury in congressional hearings and that he belongs in jail "without question."   

Musk is neither the only nor the first noteworthy figure to back Paul for party leader. Just hours after McConnell announced his upcoming step-down from leadership, independent 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr voiced his support: 

In a testament to the extent to which the establishment recoils at the libertarian-minded Paul, mainstream media outlets -- which have been quick to report on other developments in the majority leader race -- pretended not to notice that Paul had signaled his interest in the job. More than 24 hours after Paul's test-the-waters tweet-fest began, not a single major outlet had brought it to the attention of their audience. 

That may be his strongest endorsement yet. 

Tyler Durden Sun, 03/10/2024 - 20:25

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Government

The Great Replacement Loophole: Illegal Immigrants Score 5-Year Work Benefit While “Waiting” For Deporation, Asylum

The Great Replacement Loophole: Illegal Immigrants Score 5-Year Work Benefit While "Waiting" For Deporation, Asylum

Over the past several…

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The Great Replacement Loophole: Illegal Immigrants Score 5-Year Work Benefit While "Waiting" For Deporation, Asylum

Over the past several months we've pointed out that there has  been zero job creation for native-born workers since the summer of 2018...

... and that since Joe Biden was sworn into office, most of the post-pandemic job gains the administration continuously brags about have gone foreign-born (read immigrants, mostly illegal ones) workers.

And while the left might find this data almost as verboten as FBI crime statistics - as it directly supports the so-called "great replacement theory" we're not supposed to discuss - it also coincides with record numbers of illegal crossings into the United States under Biden.

In short, the Biden administration opened the floodgates, 10 million illegal immigrants poured into the country, and most of the post-pandemic "jobs recovery" went to foreign-born workers, of which illegal immigrants represent the largest chunk.

Asylum seekers from Venezuela await work permits on June 28, 2023 (via the Chicago Tribune)

'But Tyler, illegal immigrants can't possibly work in the United States whilst awaiting their asylum hearings,' one might hear from the peanut gallery. On the contrary: ever since Biden reversed a key aspect of Trump's labor policies, all illegal immigrants - even those awaiting deportation proceedings - have been given carte blanche to work while awaiting said proceedings for up to five years...

... something which even Elon Musk was shocked to learn.

Which leads us to another question: recall that the primary concern for the Biden admin for much of 2022 and 2023 was soaring prices, i.e., relentless inflation in general, and rising wages in particular, which in turn prompted even Goldman to admit two years ago that the diabolical wage-price spiral had been unleashed in the US (diabolical, because nothing absent a major economic shock, read recession or depression, can short-circuit it once it is in place).

Well, there is one other thing that can break the wage-price spiral loop: a flood of ultra-cheap illegal immigrant workers. But don't take our word for it: here is Fed Chair Jerome Powell himself during his February 60 Minutes interview:

PELLEY: Why was immigration important?

POWELL: Because, you know, immigrants come in, and they tend to work at a rate that is at or above that for non-immigrants. Immigrants who come to the country tend to be in the workforce at a slightly higher level than native Americans do. But that's largely because of the age difference. They tend to skew younger.

PELLEY: Why is immigration so important to the economy?

POWELL: Well, first of all, immigration policy is not the Fed's job. The immigration policy of the United States is really important and really much under discussion right now, and that's none of our business. We don't set immigration policy. We don't comment on it.

I will say, over time, though, the U.S. economy has benefited from immigration. And, frankly, just in the last, year a big part of the story of the labor market coming back into better balance is immigration returning to levels that were more typical of the pre-pandemic era.

PELLEY: The country needed the workers.

POWELL: It did. And so, that's what's been happening.

Translation: Immigrants work hard, and Americans are lazy. But much more importantly, since illegal immigrants will work for any pay, and since Biden's Department of Homeland Security, via its Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency, has made it so illegal immigrants can work in the US perfectly legally for up to 5 years (if not more), one can argue that the flood of illegals through the southern border has been the primary reason why inflation - or rather mostly wage inflation, that all too critical component of the wage-price spiral  - has moderated in in the past year, when the US labor market suddenly found itself flooded with millions of perfectly eligible workers, who just also happen to be illegal immigrants and thus have zero wage bargaining options.

None of this is to suggest that the relentless flood of immigrants into the US is not also driven by voting and census concerns - something Elon Musk has been pounding the table on in recent weeks, and has gone so far to call it "the biggest corruption of American democracy in the 21st century", but in retrospect, one can also argue that the only modest success the Biden admin has had in the past year - namely bringing inflation down from a torrid 9% annual rate to "only" 3% - has also been due to the millions of illegals he's imported into the country.

We would be remiss if we didn't also note that this so often carries catastrophic short-term consequences for the social fabric of the country (the Laken Riley fiasco being only the latest example), not to mention the far more dire long-term consequences for the future of the US - chief among them the trillions of dollars in debt the US will need to incur to pay for all those new illegal immigrants Democrat voters and low-paid workers. This is on top of the labor revolution that will kick in once AI leads to mass layoffs among high-paying, white-collar jobs, after which all those newly laid off native-born workers hoping to trade down to lower paying (if available) jobs will discover that hardened criminals from Honduras or Guatemala have already taken them, all thanks to Joe Biden.

Tyler Durden Sun, 03/10/2024 - 19:15

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