Unhappy Anniversary

The United States Federal Minimum Wage is frozen in time

by

Dominic Alvieri

July 22nd, 2022

Twitter @AlvieriD

Why are we leaving everyone behind?

There is absolutely no excuse for the United States federal minimum wage to be frozen in time since 2009.

Year after year there is no change just like a broken clock. Even after this last slide stocks are still up quite nicely since 2009. Athlete and executive salaries, housing prices...and now inflation are soaring.

Arizona Cardinals star quarterback Kyler Murray just signed a 5 year $230 million dollar contract and once again the federal minimum wage has not changed since 2009.

The US Department of Labor documents the history of changes to the Minimum Wage Law. They have not been documenting much over the last decade plus.

What is going on?

What has the US Department of Labor been doing? In a word-NOTHING.

It is in corporate America's best interest to keep wages low. 

Workers wanted more money but yadda, yadda, yadda the lobbyists took care of it. 

Most jobs in one way or another are based off of the minimum wage. Any US State wishing to go above that rate may do so but it is against the law to go below that federal minimum level.

There are several different categories of jobs including skilled jobs, professional, hourly etc. This isn't a deep dive or a skewed data driven bs info blog. Just a blog about a physical real world problem.

Pre-pandemic the hospitality industry was one of the industries in the United States that made up a majority of the job growth over the previous 10 year period according to several archived analyst articles on CNBC. 

During this time restauranteurs, franchisers, coffee houses and the like sprung up on nearly every corner during the expansion. Think Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Subway etc. not to mention the casual Texas Roadhouse or TGIFs down the strip. Don't forget about Shake Shack. 

sad but true...

Firms are still lobbying hard for the government not to raise wages for those who need it most.

It is pretty sad that corporations pay lobbyists to keep wages down. 

In a nutshell corporate America pays lobbyists mostly congregated on a few block stretch of K Street in Washington DC not far from the Capitol. It is in their best interest to keep wages low. Year after year corporate and franchised locations continue to mushroom while the starting minimum wage remained the same.

Lobbying.

The major problem is corporate and entrepreneurial America got greedy and didn't raise many minimum basic rates during the expansion and then the pandemic hit. Now the inflationary decline is upon us and staffs are being cut are employers are now unable to raise rates. Although some states did raise minimum wages many did not. Wages overall did show gains but paled in comparison to the overall growth of the upper income brackets.

Without posting more mind numbing data suffice it to say the federal minimum needs to rise dramatically and rise today.

Otherwise we really are leaving everyone else behind.

Dominic Alvieri 

NRA I Don't Need an AR-15 to Hunt a Duck But I Need a Raise

What do the NRA and the NRA stand for?

By Dominic Alvieri

@AlvieriD

May 29th, 2022

The National Rifle Association

The National Rifle Association held their annual convention in Houston Texas this week days after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Texas senator Ted Cruz made a speech last night blaming everything but the truth on the increase in the amount of mass shootings in our country. Cruz blamed violent video games which have been proven not to be the root cause and thoroughly written about.

I hate politics.

The NRA board of directors just re-elected longtime head Wayne LaPierre even amid scandals which says a lot about the group at the moment.

I am a firm believer in the right to keep and bear arms but a person does not need an AR-15 to hunt a duck or a deer. 

***Nearly every single mass shooting in the United States from Columbine to Uvalde has been carried out with an AR-15***

It is time for command and control. WE have the right to keep and bear arms and to be protected. Guns don't kill without being in control of the wrong person.

Not only were the speakers unshaken but they were heartless.

What does the NRA lobby? How much do they spend? Who contributes?

Good questions. Many sites have data readily available and in this case used from /opensecrets.org

2021 data was not available

For arguments sake lets say this dataset is a correct representation. A majority of spending is in the classic general "outside spending' category. What does that entail? This outside spending funds an entity called the Victory Fund which is a special purpose vehicle tied closely to the National Rifle Association.

Who donates to the NRA? Readily available information with the usual suspects like the gun makers themselves that I will not go over here but was an informative journey and a deeper dive is required. 

What does the group lobby? This is a small sample with viewpoints and political comments aside.

In 13 years the NRA has not budged on gun control.

S-3 was recently hired by the NRA

Americans will never give up their right to bear arms but we have past the point for gun control. In most states you can buy a gun at the age of 18 but have to wait until you are 21 to drink. 

Let that thought marinate for a moment.

There are many groups that are intent on keeping loose gun regulation and control. How many more innocent people have to die before we recognize the need for some control. 

 

The National Restaurant Association

This NRA represents the second largest private sector employer in the United States. 

In 13 years the National Restaurant Association has lobbied against raising the minimum wage in every instance. Contributors include the usual large corporate chain restaurants from Darden and new economy firms like DoorDash who contribute and lobby to keep wages down.

But how low?

The servers who serve you food and beverages have not had a raise in 13 years. In the state of Pennsylvania a server makes $2.83 per hour. In 35 years the pay rate for a server in Pennsylvania has only gone from $2.01 to $2.83 an hour. That is not a typo.

How can this be?

The largest growth industry pre-pandemic was the food and beverage sector which needed and still needs low wages to not only get back to previous levels but to continue to grow. Growth at the expense of a young and uneducated revolving door work force except for those for whom it is their profession.

Server wages are based off of a percentage of the Federal minimum wage subsidized by the employer to that Federal minimum, currently $7.25 an hour if tips are not made above that minimum hourly level.

Coca-Cola, McDonald's, DoorDash all donating to lobby and lobbyists to keep the minimum wage down. It is in their best interest to keep wage costs down and margins up. Business 101.

What about the people. We the people?

I will spare you the complete list but it is fair to say there a a lot of people who have a keen interest in keeping the Federal minimum wage down.

Both the NRA and the other NRA, the National Restaurant Association receive substantial amounts of money from groups intent on keeping the status quo, but for how much longer?

In 13 years the National Rifle Association has done nothing to control AR-15s which have been used in every mass school shooting.

In 13 years the National Restaurant Association has lobbied against raising the minimum wage every time.

Who do these groups work for? That was a rhetorical question.

Stay safe.

All Day I Dream about Redacted

How a bug bounty break caught an NFT scam which uncovered major credit card fraud

By Dominic Alvieri

@AlvieriD

May 22, 2022

Counterfeiting and credit card scams have been around since the products themselves. This isn't new. Distributions of the said scams are becoming more and more creative.

The scam gates have opened.

{Cover photo courtesy of scam site /rockport-france.fr 165.231.200.159 in Estonia}

One thing leads to another

Finishing a technical report on a bug bounty I decided to search related cryptocurrency and NFT projects which were recently announced looking for bad actors whom often target new projects. Adidas, Hyundai and a soon to be named company were all being targeting.  Confirmations. 

This is the most recent Adidas court order victory.

Adidas was first alphabetically and had several NFT and crypto related spoofs being represented by several actors in various countries show up on the first queries. NFT minting wallet drain spoofs and the usual giveaway scams showed immediately. 

Several related scams including /adidas-mint.com,  /drop-adidas.com and /drops-adidas.com were reported and closed along with half a dozen others. Another set of names caught my eye so I drilled down deeper.

 

Counterfeits and credit card fraud all over the world

Adidas-CostaRica caught my eye due to the current Conti ransomware situation in Costa Rica now. Uruguay, Ecuador, France, Malaysia and nearly apanning the globe.

/adidas-uae.com

/adidas-peru.com

/adidas-ecudor.com

/adidas-slovenija.com

/adidas-uruguay.com...

more and more variations showed up on related searches:

/AdidasColumbiaOutlet.com

/AdidasShoes-UK.com

/AdidasShoes-Canada.com...

Most of the domains in question lead to one ip address and Alibaba registered. Counterfeiting products and credit card theft alerts have been issued for these fake domains which are not official Adidas promotions. Reebok, Rockport, Nike and several other major brands have been targeted with these fake spoof websites. Outlets, sales and discounted prices are the major lures and no sneakers have been delivered to any friends who have attempted to sign up and purchase.

The Cyber Show

/

A Week with Lapsus$

Conversations with Americas Most Wanted

By Dominic Alvieri

@AlvieriD

April 11th, 2022

What it's like

 

So what is it like to speak with someone so wanted and hated by so many? The answer may surprise you. Brash, confident and way more intelligent than people are willing to give to the remainder of the Lapsus$ group credit for. 

What is his name? I didn't ask and frankly don't care. Chances are it would be another farce. 

Where is he? I didn't ask again and don't care.

Where are the remaining members now? I again didn't ask and again don't care. That is not my job to breach Telegram and other companies and to find answers. 

This is an account from the past week with Lapsus. I am not part of Lapsus$.

Recent photo profile updates

Tagged on Twitter

That warm and cozy feeling. 

What did you talk about? None of your business. Just kidding. We did share a few laughs. Speaking of how influential a photo is in reference to text we laughed as he changed profile photos live. We are all visual creatures. We also all fall into patterns. Pattern analysis transfers well.

We spoke about women ( don't judge ) surprisingly not guns, a little tech and the minefield that has been unearthed around him. Eager to save what was a short lived legend in Lapsus$ it would come as no surprise to anyone that this is the current attempt at just that, reviving Lapsus$.

It was very interesting. There have been may articles and blogs written about the group and I am not going to be redundant but giving a brief synopsis of the past week chatting with the famed "Mox" of the prematurely pronounced dead Lapsus$ hacking and extortion group. 

In and out. Constant change, searching, contacts. Fast.

Lapsus$ is still alive albeit a like a racing team without a car or driver but it has a good pit crew. They are looking to change that. 

As several researchers have pointed out and has been confirmed there are several members of the group still active as is evident here. Actively searching to retain former glory. 

Right now it is no secret that the group is under diminished capacity. That can change at any moment.

Girls, guns, cars, companies... we didn't actually speak about guns but I'm sure that would have been interesting as well. 

Good bye Mox

To be continued fortunately by someone else. I'm exhausted.

Dominic Alvieri

Twitter @AlvieriD

The DarkWeb is Pretty Bright on Telegram and Twitter

Dark net services displayed on social media.

By Dominic Alvieri

@AlvieriD

3-9-2022

More and more services and communications that were once reserved for the deepest depths of the DarkWeb are crawling up the stack, if you will to social media platforms. Ransomware group posts are now mainstream on Telegram and Twitter with calls for action, mis or disinformation and fake data leaks.

The hacking free for all

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th brought about armies of hacktivists, some real while the majority are unskilled and caught up in the wave. Legitimate groups like LAPSUS have taken to social media to announce high profile breaches from Samsung and Nvidia while other groups pretend to have hacked the world.

IT Army of Ukraine

The IT group turned army calls on users to for action providing details of direct targets the group requires taken down. More and more the IT Army of Ukraine posts targets in English and Ukrainian.

Network Battalion 65' posted a fake leak that was so embarrassing for the group but yet they post again. Not shown.

Like many groups constantly changing members. Brief synopsis is that the group revamping after a fallout and fake Kaspersky leak attempt. Keep an eye out.

Outrageous breach claims have been the norm. Unverified claims ranging from The National Bank of Russia to the FBI itself have been hacked. Hack the Planet until there is nothing left. Peak infosec I believe it was called. Thanks Carl.

Epic leak fail award goes to Network Battalion 65'

Right now this is a black eye that needs to be addressed. Kaspersky itself is facing intense pressure from security staff but this data breach was confirmed fake.

Kaspersky has issued an official response courtesy of @ajvicens

GhostSec

GhostSec like many malicious groups has several channels. IntelGS is Intel GhostSec a darker splintered part of the group that has also joined in the cyber war.

GhostSec channels appear to be currently fragmented and not coordinated.

Lapsus$

After two successful high profile leaks of Samsung and Nvidia last week LAPSUS is toying around with an anonymous poll when allegedly they have already breached Vodafone.

Mercado Libre just disclosed a breach on their latest 8k release this week with the Securities and Exchange commission. Mercado did not release a timeline or provide more vector details at this moment. 

Impresa the Portuguese media giant was hacked by Lapsus$ over the new years holiday and has had several website and platform issues ever since. The main Impresa website /impresa.pt has been down and is currently down as of March 11th, 2022.

Lapsus$ is seen toying with companies they have already hacked and allegedly hacked. Vodafone is unconfirmed at the moment.

Groups regularly post claims and recruit people of all types. Anonymous groups large and small have taken over social media with misinformation and disinformation campaigns creating profiles, hashtags and using automated software and bots to promote their goals.

Videos and photoshopped imagers are the norm. 

Against the West / Blue Hornet

The group appears to be restructuring and has been quiet this week as of last check. Like all groups use caution so that you don't get stung.

Trolls

Don't waste your time.

Stormus group tops that list. Others come to mind.

Verify any information or disinformation before you respond in any way, if at all.

Gazprom alleged data leak on Telegram

Lapsus$ live post as I blog taking credit for Ubisoft hack and advertising The Verge article about it on one of their channels.

Lapsus$ appears to have several flaws, youth, inexperience in several key areas, smashing and grabbing what they can, the group is buying inside access from either an employee or vendor and then getting to work. Access is usually gained through a VPN or AnyDesk remote control application, recon, targeting and then deploying payloads. Social engineering methods and other low grade tactics.

Check your employees and vendors.

Currently advertising for services now.

Updated: 7 members of Lapsus$ have been arrested aged 16-21. Other members are still at large and doubtful ring leader or mastermind is teenager arrested in Oxford, England as media claims. I do not believe that to be true. There are more members at large. To be continued...

Conti

Still alive and kicking albeit smaller and segmented. Looking to reform in Russia.

Samsung Leak

Lapsus$ again.

LockBit has just allegedly leaked several companies from Singapore, verification pending. LockBit has been very active in the past 30 days. Lapsus has a mock vote due this weekend to leak another high profile company and I'm sure they will be plenty of fake anonymous group claims. 

There are other groups but this was intended to be a brief account.  

Stay safe.

Dominic Alvieri

Twitter @AlvieriD