Category Archives: FBI

Gangs Use of Emojis in Text Messages

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How gang members could be using emojis photo

In part: “I’ll see a string of pictures, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know what that means,'” she said.

Donna Price said that’s exactly what gang members want to hear.

Price was part of the Street Safe Task Force established by former North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue and worked closely with gang prevention coordinators. Price said gangs are using what look like innocent emojis in social media posts as hidden messages to recruit, communicate with one another and threaten rivals.

“There are about 1,200 emojis out there, and those emojis can each mean four different meanings,” Price said.

Maxwell asked Foston what she thinks the gas pump emoji means.

“They need gas,” Foston answered. “They’re at an old-school gas station and they’re in the middle of nowhere.”

Not always. Some use that emoji as a symbol for gang. They may add the emoji “A” and emoji “NG” to erase any doubt.

Or they’ll use a cluster of emojis, like the one below. It means “Do you have any weed?”

The emoji combo of a man running and scissors is a threat to cut or stab someone.

“This is like taking it to the next level,” Foston said. “That’s scary.”

Detective Al Smith of the Violent Crimes and Gang Unit in Burlington said that the emoji communication code started with gangs in the western and northern parts of the country.

“They like to share everything. It’s a common trend with gangs,” Smith said.

Maxwell looked at the Twitter feed of a well-known Chicago gang member and found the gas pump emojis and others with multiple meanings, along with plenty of threats.

That gang member was killed three years ago.

“The trend is, by the time we find out about it, they have either used it or have moved on to something else,” said Smith.

That’s where things can get complicated. The alternative meanings of the emojis change often, because gangs know that investigators are on to them. Different gangs use the emojis in different ways, so it can be tough for police, and parents, to break the code, which is why Price said parents have to make the effort to know what the pictures mean.

“It’s like music and technology,” said Price. “You have to stay up on it all the time.”

“I have to tell them (my children) all the time, ‘It’s not necessarily you,’” Foston said. “’It’s the people around you. And I don’t know everybody that you communicate with or talk to.’”

*** BTW, as a warning: Parents beware: Kids are using this secret emoji language

How gang members could be using emojis | FOX13

In the secret code of New York gangs, texting two thumbs up doesn’t mean everything is OK.

It means you’re a member of the Harlem Crips, a ruthless band of hoodlums who have terrorized upper Manhattan for decades, according to police.

They say violent city street toughs have turned to cutesy emoji and other digital imagery to communicate with each other, using seemingly innocuous symbols as tools of murder, assault, rape and robbery.

“Social media is something the juveniles and youth are constantly using,” said NYPD Sgt. Leo Nugent of the Bronx Gang Squad, noting that the gas pump has become a universal symbol for “gang.”

“If I’m in a gang mode, I’ll put that up,” he said.

The Crips opt for the two thumbs-up emoji, with the knuckles facing each other, because they resemble the letter “H.”

Their longstanding rivals, the Bloods, signal their affiliation with an image of a magician’s top hat.

They even go after each other with emoji, posting other gangs’ symbols upside down as a sign of disrespect.

And they livestream video from their opponents’ turf on Snapchat, a type of taunting known as “cyberbanging.”

Gangs have learned to avoid Facebook, which police have scoured for years for evidence used to lock up suspected leaders.

“They call Facebook ‘Fedbook’ now, because if you talk on Facebook, the feds will be monitoring,” Nugent said.

Gangbangers now prefer WhatsApp, CoverMe, Kik Messenger and Yubo — a dating app marketed to teens — where their messages quickly disappear, making it harder for cops to track them, according to lawmen.

“They’re pretty smart,” said Detective Belinda Delgado, also with the Bronx Gang unit. “WhatApp — the minute you delete it from your phone, it disappears.”

Messages sent in chat apps are not visible to the public, so there’s no way for cops to monitor conversations.

Nugent said gangs are using emoji to recruit new members and to demand they commit crimes.

He said gangs might order new members to run a credit card or check scam, using digital symbols of a man running, a money bag and a credit card.

“Members we have identified will ask for anyone who is 18 and over and who has a valid ID to private message them,” Delgado said.

Gang activity is also carried out on gaming consoles, according to Nugent.

In one robbery, a Crip set up a purported cellphone sale while chatting via PlayStation. When the victim showed up, someone pulled a gun on him and robbed him, Nugent said.

“In these chats sometimes people sell items, sneakers, headphones or cellphones, etc.,” Nugent said. “The gamers can pull up pictures of each other, so they know who they are communicating with.”

Police rely heavily on confidential informants (CIs) to fill them in on gang methods, according to Delgado.

“A CI who says, ‘Hey, our set uses Snapchat, and we communicate there when we have meetings’ . . . when we have a problem he gets us the screenshots.

“Without a court order, we can not monitor in real-time.”

The NYPD has enlisted parents to monitor potential gang activity on social media, and teaches them what to look for at gang-awareness seminars.

“I can’t go to every kid and look through his phone, but the parent can,” Nugent said.

Police said teens with big social-media followings should be a red flag for parents.

“If your kid has 3,000-5,000 friends — that could be a problem if you live in a certain neighborhood,” Nugent said.

 

1st Amendment or Selective Enforcement, Kentucky and Texas

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So, just a few days ago, a disruptive crowd gathered in the street and front lawn of Senator Mitch McConnell’s home. This happened to nights in a row at his home and office. At his home they chanted in what was reported as a peaceful assembly and exercising free speech. This is all due to the recent mass shootings. Senator McConnell is recovering at home due to a major injury to his shoulder suffered as a result of a fall.

  Local police did not intervene stating that the assembly was within the law. But, hey that is hardly accurate. Let’s take a look at the law in Kentucky shall we?

Code Section Kentucky Revised Statute section 525.055: First-Degree Disorderly Conduct
What’s Prohibited? First-degree disorderly conduct is committed in Kentucky when the following four element are all present:

  1. Engaging in any of the following acts in a public place with the intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance, or alarm:
  • Fighting, or acting in a violent, tumultuous, or threatening way
  • Making unreasonable noise

OR

Code Section Kentucky Revised Statute section 525.060: Second-Degree Disorderly Conduct
What’s Prohibited? Intentionally causing public inconvenience, annoyance, alarm, or wantonly creating a risk thereof in public while:

  • Engaging in fighting, or violent, tumultuous, or threatening behavior,
  • Making unreasonable noise

Misdemeanor Penalties in Kentucky

  • Class A misdemeanor: Punishable by imprisonment for up to 12 months and/or a fine of up to $500.
  • Class B misdemeanor: Punishable by imprisonment for up to 90 days and/or a fine of up to $250.

Okay, now we travel over to San Antonio….and Joaquin Castro, the twin brother of Congressman Julian Castro, currently a presidential candidate. By the way, Joaquin Castro is the campaign chair for his twin brother. We have a nasty doxxing operation that was launched at the hands of really both Castro twins.

The congressman claims he was targeting voters that are fueling a campaign of hate that labels Hispanic immigrants as invaders. Meanwhile, Congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan defends the Castros.

So, what are the details?

 

It is notable that Castro did not list ANY Latinos in his doxxing.

Image It does not seem to matter that campaign contributions are free speech and fully protected by the 1st Amendment. Will media even go there in reporting this? Nah. Will the House Ethics Committee get involved? Nah. The mayor? Law enforcement? Nah.

What if someone gets hurt? Who is responsible?

Congressman Steve Scalise knows this quite well.

 Steve Scalise
@SteveScalise
People should not be personally targeted for their political views. Period. This isn’t a game. It’s dangerous, and lives are at stake. I know this firsthand.
Would there be Democrat outrage if any republican or President Trump had done this? Of for sure and you can bet the SPLC or ACLU would already be filing law suits.
And the polarized divided media, political class and laws continue to swirl.

Fancy Bear, APT28, IoT, Hacking via Printers

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Image result for jon huntsman moscow photo

Primer: U.S Ambassador to Russia, Jon Huntsman just issued his letter of resignation to President Trump. He states that he wants to return home to Utah due to a growing family. Gotta wonder if Amb. Huntsman ever really challenged Moscow on hacking and security intrusions of the United States.

Image result for fancy bear russia

MIT: A group of hackers linked to Russian spy agencies are using “internet of things” devices like internet-connected phones and printers to break into corporate networks, Microsoft announced on Monday.

Fancy Bear never hibernates: The Russian hackers, who go by names like Strontium, Fancy Bear, and APT28, are linked to the military intelligence agency GRU.

The group has been active since at least 2007. They are credited with a long list of infamous work including breaking into the Democratic National Committee in 2016, the crippling NotPetya attacks against Ukraine in 2017, and targeting political groups in Europe and North America throughout 2018.

Insecurity of Things: The new campaign from GRU compromised popular internet of things devices including a VOIP (voice over internet protocol) phone, a connected office printer, and a video decoder in order to gain access to corporate networks. Microsoft has some of the best visibility into corporate networks on earth because so many organizations are using Windows machines. Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center spotted Fancy Bear’s new work starting in April 2019.

The password is password: Although things like smartphones and desktop computers are often top of mind when it comes to security, it’s often the printer, camera, or decoder that leaves a door open for a hacker to exploit.

In multiple cases, Microsoft saw Fancy Bear get access to targeted networks because the IoT devices were deployed with default passwords. In another case, the latest security update was not applied. Using those devices as a starting point, the hackers established a beachhead and looked for further access.

“Once the actor had successfully established access to the network, a simple network scan to look for other insecure devices allowed them to discover and move across the network in search of higher-privileged accounts that would grant access to higher-value data,” Microsoft warned in a blog post published on Monday.

The hackers moved from one device to another, establishing persistence and mapping the network as they went, communicating with command and control servers all the while.

Global targets: Microsoft has been closely watching this group over the last year.

Of the 1,400 notifications the company delivered to those targeted or compromised by Fancy Bear, 20% have been to global non-governmental organizations, think tanks, or politically affiliated organizations. The remaining 80% have been to various sectors including government, technology, military, medicine, education, and engineering.

“We have also observed and notified STRONTIUM attacks against Olympic organizing committees, anti-doping agencies, and the hospitality industry,” Microsoft’s blog warned.

Last year, the FBI took disruptive action against a Fancy Bear campaign known as “VPNFilter” which targeted routers and network storage devices with malware with destructive capabilities of “bricking” a device by deleting firmware and rendering the device unusable. That campaign especially targeted Ukraine, a favorite target of Fancy Bear.

Waivers? China Pharmaceuticals Killing Americans

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Primer:

Image result for chinese pharmaceuticals
In part from Reuters: “My friend President Xi said that he would stop the sale of fentanyl to the United States – this never happened and many Americans continue to die,” Trump said in a tweet.

“We’re losing thousands of people to fentanyl,” he later told reporters.

The Chinese embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fentanyl is an opioid painkiller 50 times more potent than heroin, and has a central role in the devastating U.S. opioid crisis. In the United States, fentanyl and all of its analogues are controlled substances subject to strict regulation.

More than 28,000 synthetic opioid-related overdose deaths, mostly from fentanyl related substances, were recorded in 2017, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Image result for chinese pharmaceuticals

Added from Bloomberg:

China has become the world’s largest supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients, or API, providing key components to drugmakers worldwide. But a yearlong recall of tainted heart drugs taken by millions of Americans is prompting U.S. national security officials to ask whether China’s growing role in the pharmaceutical supply chain could pose a threat to the health of military personnel.

“The national security risks of increased Chinese dominance of the global API market cannot be overstated,” Christopher Priest, the acting deputy assistant director for health care operations and Tricare for the Defense Health Agency, told a U.S.-China advisory panel last week in Washington.

The Defense Health Agency manages much of the health care of military members, including prescription drugs.

Concerns about the safety and efficacy of Chinese-made drugs are rising at a time of heightened trade tensions between Washington and Beijing. Last week, Trump unveiled plans for new tariffs on Chinese goods; China plans to halt imports of U.S. crops in response. The yuan sank on Monday against the dollar.

The National Security Council is looking into Chinese drug manufacturing and trying to identify the most at-risk medications, Priest told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in Washington, without elaborating. The National Security Council declined to comment.

The Defense Health Agency is supposed to use drugs that comply with the Trade Agreements Act, a 1979 law that requires many federal purchases to be made in the U.S. or another compliant country. China isn’t on the approved list, but the agency has waivers for almost 150 drugs they otherwise wouldn’t be able to procure, Priest said. The TAA covers only finished products, not their components.

Many drugs taken by military members and civilians have active ingredients made in China. While drugmakers typically don’t disclose where every molecule in a pill comes from, the recall of contaminated blood-pressure drugs has shown that many of their active components originated in Chinese factories.

Rocket Fuel

Larry Wortzel, a member of the U.S.-China commission and a military retiree, said four of his blood-pressure medications were recalled in three months. Wortzel’s pills, versions of a drug called valsartan, were manufactured in India but had active ingredients from China.

“They were contaminated with rocket fuel,” Wortzel said. “I imagine active people have the same problem. This affects the readiness of our troops.”

The recalled valsartan contained a probable carcinogen known as NDMA, a manufacturing byproduct once used to make rocket fuel and also found in grilled and cured meats.

Priest called the recalls “a never-ending saga” and a “wake-up call.”

The recalls began in July 2018 with valsartan made by China’s Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical Co. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has largely blamed the company’s manufacturing process for creating the NDMA, which went undetected for as long as four years. Drugmakers in other countries who used similar processes have also had to recall blood-pressure pills.

Some valsartan purchased by the Defense Logistics Agency and later recalled was TAA-compliant, said Patrick Mackin, a spokesman for the DLA. The agency manages the supply chain for the U.S. military, including ensuring pharmaceuticals make their way to military treatment facilities. With valsartan in shortage, according to the FDA, the agency sought a TAA waiver for valsartan on July 15, Mackin said.

A Bloomberg investigation this year detailed doubts among U.S. health officials about the data generic-drug companies, including Zhejiang Huahai and others involved in the valsartan recalls, use to prove their products are safe and effective.

“We wouldn’t have our aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines built in China, and for very important medications, we really should look at what it takes to purchase based on value not just price,” Rosemary Gibson, the author of the book “China Rx,” told the commission. “We want cheap, we can buy cheap. But what’s missing from the whole equation is quality.”

Shortage Fears

Quality isn’t the only concern. Shortages could also arise from attempts by the Chinese to cut off supply, particularly amid the U.S.-China trade standoff.

“If China shut the door on exports, our hospitals would cease to function, so this has tremendous urgency,” Gibson said.

Priest said pharmaceutical companies should be compelled, using the buying power of the entire federal government, to maintain the infrastructure to make drugs without relying on countries like China.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is investigating the FDA’s ability to police foreign manufacturing. The committee’s leaders asked the agency for more information on the valsartan recall in June, including about a dispute between senior officials and an agency inspector who raised red flags at Zhejiang Huahai more than a year before the NDMA was detected. The panel also asked the Government Accountability Office to look at the FDA’s oversight of foreign drug manufacturing.

“Shame on us for not paying attention to something so critical and assuming, which has been the orthodoxy for a long time, that the industry would regulate itself,” Benjamin Shobert, senior associate for international health at The National Bureau of Asian Research, told the commission.

 

Defamation Laws v. President Trump

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The El Paso shooter left a 4 page manifesto laying out his political and society position(s) on several topics including the Hispanic invasion. He also addressed fake news and that Trump did not have anything to do with his evil decisions to go on a killing rampage. So, Cloudflare fired one of it’s customers, 8Chan. The shooter’s manifesto was posted on 8Chan. A cyber site known as ZDNet among others reporting the termination of 8Chan had it the subtitle the following: “8Chan has harbored a community of hate” (in part). No argument there.

Okay, yet consider the words ‘harbored a community of hate’. In a review of media and politicians, it is beyond dispute that they too have harbored a community of hate.

Image result for victims of mass shootings

Senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris often has called President Trump a ‘predator‘.

Senator Cory Booker declared on Meet the Press that Trump is responsible for El Paso shooting.

Mayor Pete Buttigeig along with Elizabeth Warren and Julian Castro and others have said the same thing.  These politicians created the phrase ‘white nationalism’ to describe Trump and Trump supporters.

Bernie Sanders too? Yes.

While being one of the moderators of the Democrat debate, Don Lemon of CNN twice called Trump a racist. Not to be left out is the New York Times and for sure the Washington Post.

So we have yet another ‘community of hate’ and is anyone challenging these politicians or media to look inward and ask if they are complicit is all this?

So, what about defamation laws? Glad you asked. Consider the following:

What is Defamation?

Defamation is a common law tort, governed by state law, in which an individual makes a “publication” of a defamatory statement of and concerning the plaintiff that damages the reputation of the plaintiff. Defamation comes in two forms: slander and libel. Slander involves the oral “publication” of a defamatory remark that is heard by another, which injures the subject’s reputation or character. Libel is the written “publication” of a defamatory remark that has the tendency to injure another’s reputation or character.

What are the elements of a cause of action for defamation?

The elements of a defamation suit; whether slander or libel, are:

1. A defamatory statement;

2. Published to a third party;

3. Which the speaker knew or should have known was false;

4. That causes injury to the subject of the communication

So, just how many are really creating more hate and division and the manifestation of this into the full landscape of domestic tranquility or the that matter even when it comes to global relations between the United States and countries across the world?

Active shooters and deadly ambushes on soft targets where very innocent people die is the result of all this high octane rhetoric by some many. Evil pulled the trigger(s). Evil is a form of mental defect. See something say something? Okay, that does often work when it comes to public safety and nabbing criminals. Great. Yet here is another suggestion for a layered approach. How about the cyber wing of our government, suggesting the NSA create a search algorithm that searches online sites including dark parts of the web like that of 8Chan to flush out evil as spelled out in the El Paso shooter’s manifesto? Google, Facebook and Twitter all created and apply these kinds of software tactics. Suggesting the NRA is to blame is without basis, suggesting Trump is to blame is without basis, suggesting that white nationalism is to blame is without basis.

There is no single cure to this community of hate. There must be a layered approach, so having a cogent summit and plan is suggested. After the Parkland shooting, the Trump White House did host a summit and several approaches were suggested including a state by state Red Flag law system to keep schools safe.

How do you legislate away hate that may turn deadly? You don’t but politicians and media must become introspective in this community of hate.

For more consideration is the recent item published by the LA Times. In part:

For two years, we’ve been studying the life histories of mass shooters in the United States for a project funded by the National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. We’ve built a database dating back to 1966 of every mass shooter who shot and killed four or more people in a public place, and every shooting incident at schools, workplaces, and places of worship since 1999. We’ve interviewed incarcerated perpetrators and their families, shooting survivors and first responders. We’ve read media and social media, manifestos, suicide notes, trial transcripts and medical records.

Our goal has been to find new, data-driven pathways for preventing such shootings. Although we haven’t found that mass shooters are all alike, our data do reveal four commonalities among the perpetrators of nearly all the mass shootings we studied.

First, the vast majority of mass shooters in our study experienced early childhood trauma and exposure to violence at a young age. The nature of their exposure included parental suicide, physical or sexual abuse, neglect, domestic violence, and/or severe bullying. The trauma was often a precursor to mental health concerns, including depression, anxiety, thought disorders or suicidality.

Second, practically every mass shooter we studied had reached an identifiable crisis point in the weeks or months leading up to the shooting. They often had become angry and despondent because of a specific grievance. For workplace shooters, a change in job status was frequently the trigger. For shooters in other contexts, relationship rejection or loss often played a role. Such crises were, in many cases, communicated to others through a marked change in behavior, an expression of suicidal thoughts or plans, or specific threats of violence.

Third, most of the shooters had studied the actions of other shooters and sought validation for their motives. People in crisis have always existed. But in the age of 24-hour rolling news and social media, there are scripts to follow that promise notoriety in death. Societal fear and fascination with mass shootings partly drives the motivation to commit them. Hence, as we have seen in the last week, mass shootings tend to come in clusters. They are socially contagious. Perpetrators study other perpetrators and model their acts after previous shootings. Many are radicalized online in their search for validation from others that their will to murder is justified.

Fourth, the shooters all had the means to carry out their plans. Once someone decides life is no longer worth living and that murdering others would be a proper revenge, only means and opportunity stand in the way of another mass shooting. Is an appropriate shooting site accessible? Can the would-be shooter obtain firearms? In 80% of school shootings, perpetrators got their weapons from family members, according to our data. Workplace shooters tended to use handguns they legally owned. Other public shooters were more likely to acquire them illegally. Go here for the full article.