1/12/21

LP, AP & IT Security's #1 News Source

Interface Security Systems Completes New
$60 Million Round of Equity Financing

Earth City, MO (January 12, 2021) - Interface Security Systems, a leading managed service provider delivering business security, managed network, UCaaS, and business intelligence solutions to distributed enterprises, announced the completion of a $60 million equity financing transaction led by its current sponsors SunTx Capital Partners and Prudential Capital Partners.

The additional equity capital will help facilitate the company's growth strategy and strengthen its industry-leading capabilities, featuring highly differentiated managed services. This new capital comes in the wake of a highly productive 2020 where Interface has:

● Made significant investments in innovation, product development, and new technology infrastructure
● Scaled operations and expanded service offering to a broader range of verticals
● Launched new services and strategic partnerships
● Achieved a 250% YoY growth in new customer acquisitions
● Further enhanced the overall customer experience

Michael Shaw, CEO of Interface Security Systems, said, "We see a major digital transformation taking place within numerous distributed enterprise business models seeking to adapt to changing consumer behavior and increasing security threats. Interface is a leading provider of innovative business security solutions, remote managed video monitoring, and networking infrastructure that provides distributed enterprises with next-generation store technology and 24/7 system management to keep pace with these trends. This capital infusion will enable us to continue to stay ahead of the technology curve and further solidify our position as a key technology partner for consumer-facing businesses."

Ned Fleming, Founding Partner of SunTx Capital Partners, said, "This new capital will catalyze the growth phase that Interface is already in. We believe the company is strongly positioned to help businesses integrate the management of their security, managed networks, and business intelligence, particularly as we emerge from the global health crisis."

Robert Derrick, Managing Director and Partner with Prudential Capital Partners, said, "Interface is well-positioned to support consumer-facing distributed enterprises as they transform their business models. We are happy to be a part of this new round of investment to help fuel their evolution and growth."

Read More Here

Europol Newsroom:
Darkmarket: World's largest illegal dark web marketplace taken down

DarkMarket, the world's largest illegal marketplace on the dark web, has been taken offline in an international operation involving Germany, Australia, Denmark, Moldova, Ukraine, the United Kingdom (the National Crime Agency), and the USA (DEA, FBI, and IRS). Europol supported the takedown with specialist operational analysis and coordinated the cross-border collaborative effort of the countries involved.

DarkMarket in figures:

● almost 500,000 users;
● more than 2,400 sellers; 
● over 320,000 transactions;
● more than 4,650 bitcoin and 12,800 monero transferred. 

At the current rate, this corresponds to a sum of more than 140 million Euro ($170.3M U.S.). The vendors on the marketplace mainly traded all kinds of drugs and sold counterfeit money, stolen or counterfeit credit card details, anonymous SIM cards and malware.

Germany takes the lead

The Central Criminal Investigation Department in the German city of Oldenburg arrested an Australian citizen who is the alleged operator of DarkMarket near the German-Danish border over the weekend. The investigation, which was led by the cybercrime unit of the Koblenz Public Prosecutor's Office, allowed officers to locate and close the marketplace, switch off the servers and seize the criminal infrastructure - more than 20 servers in Moldova and Ukraine supported by the German Federal Criminal Police office (BKA). The stored data will give investigators new leads to further investigate moderators, sellers, and buyers.

A shared commitment across the law enforcement community worldwide and a coordinated approach by law enforcement agencies have once again proved their effectiveness. The scale of the operation at Europol demonstrates the global commitment to tackling the use of the dark web as a means to commit crime. europa.eu

Poor Development Leads to Vulnerabilities
And Vulnerabilities Are Hacker Magnets

Overwhelmed supply chains and e-commerce systems
became prime targets for bad actors

Poor software quality cost organizations across all U.S. sectors $2.08 trillion in 2020

According to a report published Wednesday by the Consortium for Information & Software Quality (CISQ). The estimated incurred costs stem from unsuccessful IT and software projects, poor quality in legacy systems and operational software failures.

Cost estimates for operational software failures may fall short in the context of a surge in cybersecurity failures throughout 2020, the report warns. Overwhelmed supply chains and e-commerce systems became prime targets for actors looking to exploit software vulnerabilities.

An undetected software flaw can trigger critical system outages. And misconfiguration of cloud platforms have resulted in data breaches and ransomware attacks, such as the 2019 Capital One data breach.

"Software quality lags behind other objectives in most organizations," according to the report. All these costs are a result of inattention to quality.

Often caused by malicious actors who exploit software vulnerabilities, data breaches cost organizations an average of $3.9 million, according to a report from IBM and the Ponemon Institute.

CIOs troubled by the cost of poor software quality can start by assessing what that cost is for their organization. Once leaders understand the scope of the problem, executives can "start to identify where the large pockets" of vulnerabilities lie within their organization, and prepare a plan of attack to remedy them, said Krasner. ciodive.com

Third malware strain discovered in SolarWinds supply chain attack

CrowdStrike, one of the two security firms formally investigating the hack, sheds some light on how hackers compromised the SolarWinds Orion app build process.

Cyber-security firm CrowdStrike, one of the companies directly involved in investigating the SolarWinds supply chain attack, said today it identified a third malware strain directly involved in the recent hack.

Named Sunspot, this finding adds to the previously discovered Sunburst (Solorigate) and Teardrop malware strains.

But while Sunspot is the latest discovery in the SolarWinds hack, Crowdstrike said the malware was actually the first one used.

In a report published today, Crowdstrike said that Sunspot was deployed in September 2019, when hackers first breached SolarWinds' internal network. zdnet.com

Securing the Remote Workforce With More Endpoints
Cybersecurity teams are struggling with burnout, but the attacks keep coming
Coronavirus has forced many organisations to force security teams to work remotely - and that's making the job of securing whole businesses against threats much harder.

Cybersecurity teams are facing new challenges to how they work as the Covid-19 pandemic has forced many security operation centres (SOC) to work remotely while also having to deal with new threats - all of which is leading to higher workloads and an increase in burnout for staff.

Research by the Ponenon institute and Respond Software surveyed information security staff and found that the coronavirus pandemic is increasing hours and workloads of staff in a profession which often was already a high intensity environment for people to work in.

More than one third of SOC environments shifted to working remotely as a result of the pandemic and while this has understandably happened to protect people from the virus, over half of those now working remotely say it's had an impact on operations.

This has created additional challenges to securing endpoints when it was already challenging within a corporate environment - while security teams are also trying to balance work with the additional pressures of working from home.

Expanding Definitions of Business Continuity

"Regardless of if the SOC goes back to becoming an in-person entity or not, organizations have now learned that disaster and emergency plans need to go beyond just a physical disaster like a fire or a flood. We need to start thinking about situations like a pandemic where security analysts may be physically displaced and unable to safely be in the same room together at work," Triolo said. zdnet.com

Boston BEC Crew Busted
We're not seeing a lot of BEC suspects being prosecuted

Canton Woman Pleads Guilty to Role in BEC Scheme
Bintu Toure, 26, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. She's facing 20 years prison on each of the two accounts and $250k to $500K fines for each one.

Toure conspired with others to open numerous bank accounts in Massachusetts in the name of sham companies, as part of a BEC scheme.

Through the use of fraudulent invoices and spoofed email accounts, Toure conspired to trick the victims of the scheme into wiring hundreds of thousands of dollars to bank accounts under her control. Toure and her co-conspirators then transferred funds from the accounts on to others located overseas. justice.gov

Senior Job
Chief Security Officer job posted for International Flavors & Fragrances
in New York, NY
As a highly visible role critical to global business operations, the Chief Security Officer, reporting to the EVP and General Counsel, will frequently engage with and provide insight and advice to the CEO, Executive Committee (EC), business unit leaders and other global executives. It will be imperative that the Chief Security Officer is a strong leader with sound judgement and decisiveness in briefing management on important security issues both internally and externally. linkedin.com

Santa Ana, CA: Employee found unharmed after kidnapping, robbery at AutoZone
An employee of an auto parts store was briefly taken captive following a robbery in Santa Ana on Monday evening, Jan. 11. A male suspect entered the AutoZone in Santa Ana around 5:50 p.m., claimed he was armed and demanded cash, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Carol Salvatierra said. After he received an unspecified amount of cash, he abducted one employee and left the shop. The person who was kidnapped was later found unharmed, Salvatierra said. Police were searching for the person who took him captive as of 8:30 p.m. The suspect remained at large as of 10:20 p.m. There was no longer an active search for the suspect and the case was going to be handed off to detectives on Tuesday morning to begin building leads, police Commander Andy Alvarez said. ocregister.com

Greenwood, IN: Police looking for suspects in attempted robbery
at Von Maur in Greenwood Park Mall
Greenwood police are asking for the public's help in identifying three men who attempted to rob a department store at the Greenwood Park Mall. Police were called to the Von Maur on Monday, Dec. 28 just after 8 p.m. on a report of shoplifting. Police obtained video footage that showed three Burmese men were kept in a room with three employees after attempting to steal from the department store. According to police, one of the men pulled out a black pistol and started waving it at one of the employees and then pointed it toward the other two employees. Police said the three men then ran out of the store, got into a car and left. wthr.com

Greenpoint, NY: Man Charged With Burglarizing/Shoplifting
8 Long Island Businesses, Assaulting Cop
Following an investigation, Mendoza was found to be involved in five separate burglaries of businesses in the Village of Greenport where he broke in and stole numerous items ranging from electronics, clothing, and food, police said. Mendoza was also charged with assault on a police officer after an officer sustained an injury to his hand while Mendoza was actively resisting arrest on other unrelated charges, police said. dailyvoice.com

Winn Dixie employee arrested for year long Meat theft
Roice Dean Brenay, 27, an employee at the Winn-Dixie store in Dunnellon was arrested Wednesday was charged with committing fraud to obtain property valued at under $20,000. Brenay admitted to putting false UPC codes on packages of meat and paying the lower prices at the self-checkout register. Brenay told the deputy he had been undervaluing meat products for about a year. He said he usually gets several packaged meats and places UPC labels containing fraudulent prices on them. Brenay said he would typically grab a box of gloves, weigh them on the pricing scale to create a lower value on the label, and then go to the self-checkout register and pay for the undervalued items. He said he would take the meat home and put it in his freezer for personal use, according to the report. ocala-news.com

Man pleads guilty to $14,000 ATM thefts
One of four Texas men accused in connection with the theft of more than $14,000 from two ATMs in Central Arkansas pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges of transporting stolen money and conspiring to transport stolen money before U.S. District Judge Brian S. Miller. arkansasonline.com

Submit Your New Hires/Promotions or New Position

Featured Job Spotlights
 

	Loss Prevention Auditor and Fraud Detection Analyst Raleigh, NC - posted Dec. 14 As a Loss Prevention Auditor and Fraud Detection Analyst for Staples, you will conduct LP operational field audits remote, virtual and in person, within a base of 60 retail stores to ensure compliance to operational standards to drive operational excellence and preserve profitability...
	Leader, Asset & Profit Protection San Fran/Chicago/NY/West Palm Beach - posted Dec. 14 As the leader of the Data/Analytics & Investigations strategy, you should have strong analytical/investigation skills, the drive to innovate, and the ability to build strong partnerships to lead through the influence of others. They will be personable, open to learning, collaborating with others...
	District Asset Protection Manager Seattle, WA - posted Dec. 11 As the District Asset Protection Manager you will lead administration of Asset Protection programs and training for an assigned district in order to drive sales, profits, and a customer service culture...
	Regional Manager LP, Audit & Firearms Compliance IL, WI, MN, IA, ND, SD, NE, OK, MO & KS - posted Dec. 9 The Regional Loss Prevention Manager is responsible for the control and reduction of shrinkage at the stores in their Territory. Investigate and resolves all matters that jeopardize or cause a loss to the company's assets...
	Customer Success Specialists Multiple Locations - posted Oct. 9 The role of the Customer Success Specialist is to engage, empower, and excite our community. As a Customer Success Specialist, your primary responsibility is to ensure both retailers and law enforcement, who make up our community, have great experiences and achieve real crime reduction outcomes from using our platform. Apply Here
	Sales Representatives NuTech National - posted Oct. 13 NuTech National, an established and rapidly growing 40+ year electronic security company is expanding our National Sales Team. Seeking motivated, driven and successful sales reps to expand our national retail and governmental vertical markets. Top pay, benefits and signing bonus available. Please apply to melissa@nutechnational.com

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