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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

FBI Warns Financial Institutions To Beware of Coronavirus-Related Scams

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Cyber Security Economic Security

Comments: 0

Scammers seeking to profit from confusion and fear surrounding the coronavirus pandemic continue to succeed against financial institutions amidst a chaotic environment, according to a new warning issued by the FBI this week.

A FBI release on Monday, reported by CyberScoop, noted that business email compromise (BEC), or phishing, attacks have specifically targeted municipalities that are already desperately seeking to find supplies, such as masks and cleaning products, for their respective communities.

BEC attacks are already the most profitable of any cybercrime in the U.S., taking $1.7 billion from victims last year, the FBI reported. Warnings from other government agencies and studies by cybersecurity firms in the past few months have noted an uptick in scamming campaigns targeting businesses and local governments.

Two recent attacks included in the Monday FBI warning are representative of coronavirus-themed scam emails sent to banks, businesses and local government agencies.

One scammer pretended to be the CEO of a company actually scheduled to receive $1 million from a financial institution. An email sent to the financial institution asked that the transfer date be moved up due to “the Coronavirus outbreak and quarantine processes and precautions,” according to the FBI.

The other scam cited by the bureau was a bank receiving an invoice from a “customer in China” requesting a redirect of funds to a different bank due to “Corona Virus audits.” Not detecting the scam, the victim bank lost “significant” funds making multiple wire transfers to a new bank before realizing the mistake.

Bank officials in particular should be skeptical of any emails urging rushes on wire transfers, messages outside typical communication methods, requests to change direct deposit information from random employees, and efforts to change wiring instructions right before a transfer. Cybersecurity firm FireEye has also warned consumers and companies to watch out for emails preying on confusion and disinformation on stimulus checks and coronavirus-related relief.

Photo and link: https://securitytoday.com/articles/2020/04/09/fbi-warns-financial-institutions-to-beware-of-coronavirus-related-scams.aspx?admgarea=ht.businesscontinuity

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