Tag Archive for: Community

Rose-Hulman Alumni To Be Recognized for Career, Community and Institute Service

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Seven alumni will be recognized March 26 for their considerable career achievements, and service to their communities and alma mater, in the 2022 Alumni Awards ceremony at the Hatfield Hall Theater.

“Rose-Hulman has a long list of alumni with distinguished achievements at different stages in their careers,” said Rose-Hulman President Robert A. Coons. “Each year we’re proud to recognize a select group for applying the skills they learned on campus toward betterment within their professions and communities, while faithfully supporting the institute and its continued mission of educating tomorrow’s science, engineering and mathematics leaders.”

The Alumni Association is honoring the following alumni this year: 

Honor Alumni Award

The association’s highest alumni award recognizes exceptional achievement in any career field, vocational and service to society. 

John Elzufon: The 1968 chemical engineering alumnus is founder, senior litigator and managing director of the Elzufon Austin & Mondell law firm in Wilmington, Delaware. He specializes in professional liability defense, is the only attorney in Delaware selected by his peers as a “Top Attorney” for medical and legal professional liability defense, and has been elected to the American Board of Trial Advocates. In 2021, Elzufon was asked by the Delaware Supreme Court to update and revise the summary chapter of state law regarding medical malpractice. He originally worked as a chemical engineer with DuPont in Wilmington before attending and graduating from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. He returned to Delaware for his legal career. Elzufon has been involved in the Jewish community, serving as president of his synagogue and the Jewish Federation of Delaware, and as chair/member of the Jewish Community Relations Committee for 25 years. He also has been active in Common Cause and Delaware Guidance for Children and Youth, and was awarded the Governor’s Outstanding Volunteer Award and City of Wilmington’s Outstanding Accomplishment Award.

Justin Smith: The 2003 mechanical engineering graduate is a senior manager with SpaceX, recently leading the guidance,…

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Sixth Member of International Hacking Community Sentenced in SIM Card Scheme

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A U.S. court sentenced a member of an international hacking organization to 10 months in prison along with heavy fines in connection with a multi-million dollar hacking scheme.

The perpetrator, Garrett Endicott, 22, of Warrensburg, Mo., pleaded guilty to cyber crimes affiliated with a large-scale SIM hijacking plot, acting U.S. Attorney Saima Mohsin confirmed on Tuesday. Endicott is the sixth and final defendant to be tried in connection with an international hacking group known as The Community.

Members of The Community are known to engage in SIM hijacking or SIM swapping, which is an identity theft technique rooted in exploiting cell phone numbers. The group’s objective is to steal cryptocurrency from victims nationwide, with incidents spanning California, Missouri, Michigan, Utah, Texas, New York and Illinois.

SIM hijacking is usually carried out through bribing an employee of a cell phone provider to have access to certain phone numbers. In other instances, members of the group contacted a cellular service provider pretending to be a victim, and requested that a phone number registered to another user would be switched to a separate SIM card, effectively stealing the number and cell phone account.

From here, the hackers can access sensitive personal information, such as email addresses and financial criteria. Cryptocurrency exchange account information is particularly of interest to hackers within The Community. By having access to the victims’ cell phone numbers, The Community could pass stronger security measures such as a two-factor authentication.

In total, law enforcement officials estimate that the range of cryptocurrency theft value stands at over $9 million among sentenced defendants. 

“The actions of these defendants resulted in the loss of millions of dollars to the victims, some of whom lost their entire retirement savings,” Mohsin said.  “This case should serve as a reminder to all of us to protect our personal and financial information from those who seek to steal it.”

Endicott was ordered to pay $121,549.37 in restitution fees. 

Other defendants convicted in association with The Community’s SIM hijacking schemes were based in Florida, South Carolina,…

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International community joins forces as ransomware attacks create major disruptions

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Nick Schifrin:

Just in the past six months, ransomware hackers debilitated one of the U.S.’ largest meat producers and a crucial pipeline. They disrupted Ireland’s national health system, and they are currently wreaking havoc in an Israeli hospital system, which had to cancel all non-emergency procedures.

At this week’s virtual conference, the countries pledged to improve cooperation in law enforcement, inhibit, trace and interdict ransomware payments, and harden infrastructure.

Anne Neuberger is the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology. She organized the conference and joins me now.

Anne Neuberger, welcome to the “NewsHour.”

So, talk about this conference. This was the largest multinational gathering to discuss ransomware. What specific commitments did you get from these 30 countries?

Anne Neuberger, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technology,: Really great question, Nick.

Ransomware is a transnational threat. I will unpack that with the example that you used, the Israeli hospital. In that case, you could have the human attackers in one country, the exchanges that they used to facilitate the movement of illicit currency in a second, registered in one country, operating in a third country, and the infrastructure from which they conducted an attack in yet a fourth, fifth or sixth country.

So, we brought countries together to really coordinate our fight against ransomware. And the key takeaway was, countries talked about what’s working today in that cooperation, where the gaps are, and committing to working together to — across those gaps to fight ransomware more effectively.

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Center for Internet Security (CIS) Releases Community Defense Model v2.0 for Cybersecurity

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EAST GREENBUSH, N.Y., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Enterprises naturally want to know how effective the CIS Critical Security Controls® (CIS Controls®) – 18 top-level Controls containing 153 Safeguards that provide a prioritized path to improve an enterprise’s cybersecurity posture – are against the most prevalent cyber-attacks. The Center for Internet Security, Inc. (CIS®) answers that question and more through its Community Defense Model (CDM) v2.0, released today.

The model shows that the CIS Controls defend against approximately 86% of all ATT&CK (sub) techniques found in the MITRE ATT&CK® framework. Furthermore, Implementation Group 1 (IG1) of the Controls, the definition of essential cyber hygiene (formerly basic cyber hygiene), provides enterprises a high level of protection, positioning them to defend against the top five attack types – malware, ransomware, web application hacking, insider privilege and misuse, and targeted intrusions.

Implementation Group 1 (IG1), the group that is least costly and difficult to implement, are the Safeguards that every enterprise should deploy. For enterprises that face more sophisticated attacks or that must protect more critical data or systems, these Safeguards also provide the foundation for the other two Implementation Groups (IG2 and IG3).

“This year’s CDM findings strongly reinforce the value of a relatively small number of well-chosen and essential defensive steps found in IG1,” said Curtis Dukes, CIS Executive Vice President and General Manager, Security Best Practices. “As such, enterprises should aim to start with IG1 to obtain the highest value and work up to IG2 and IG3, as appropriate.”  

The findings in the CDM demonstrate the security value of the CIS Safeguards against the top five attack types:

  • Malware: 77% of Malware ATT&CK (sub-)techniques can be defended through implementation of IG1.
  • Ransomware: 78% of Ransomware ATT&CK (sub-)techniques are defended through implementation of IG1.
  • Web Application Hacking: 86% of Web Application Hacking ATT&CK (sub-)techniques are defended through implementing IG1 Safeguards.
  • Insider Privilege and Misuse: IG1 defends against 86% of the Insider Privilege and Misuse…

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