Archive for March, 2015

MILWAUKEE —A hospital worker from Milwaukee is accused of making purchases using credit card numbers gathered from the food court.

Court documents say Chazala Chesir, 27, made over $1,200 worth of purchases on credit cards obtained through the food court at Froedtert Hosppital in Wauwatosa.

According to the complaint, a woman visiting a family member ordered a meal from the hospital’s food service and gave her credit card number over the phone.

The woman told police that she noticed two purchases from a Pennsylvania clothing store on her credit card statement shortly after the hospital transaction.

Detectives met with hospital security, who identified Chesir as a suspect.

When questioned, Chesir told detectives that she took food orders at the hospital and wrote down the customer credit card numbers on a scrap of paper. She told police that she took a screenshot of the transaction to her work email address and used the information to make purchases away from work.

Chesir told police that she was supplementing her income as rent, student loans and raising her daughter were “getting to be too much.”

She faces six years in prison or $10,000 in fines if convicted of the felony charge.

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A Florida woman was sentenced to state prison Friday after admitting earlier this year to stealing $121,773 in pension benefits that were issued to her uncle, who died almost 30 years ago, state officials said.

Graycelia Cizik, 64, a resident of Polk County, received a two- to six-year prison term from Supreme Court Judge Roger D. McDonough in Albany County Court, according to a statement from Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.

Cizik pleaded guilty on Jan. 21 to a one-count indictment charging her with second-degree grand larceny, a felony. In Friday’s sentencing she also agreed to a judgment in favor of the New York State and Local Employees Retirement System for the $121,773 amount.

Under a plea agreement, Cizik admitted to stealing the pension benefit money issued by the state Comptroller’s Office on behalf of the state and Local Employees Retirement System, to her deceased uncle, David Wynn.

Wynn was a state pensioner who had retired from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He died in 1988.

The agencies, working together, discovered that Cizik witnessed a cremation authorization form for Wynn when he died, but failed to notify the retirement system of his death. Instead, she submitted false information to Wynn’s bank indicating that he was still alive, and used a power of attorney to access his account and withdraw pension benefits paid on his behalf over 12 years — from June 30, 1997, to Oct. 30, 2009, officials said.

Cizik was arrested in August 2014 by agents of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, and extradited to Albany County to face the indictment.

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Software Spots Online Child Sex Abuse

​Tilburg university professors Stefan Bogaerts (Clinical Forensic Psychology) and Bert-Jaap Koops (Regulation & Technology) are involved, in cooperation with children’s rights organization Terre des Hommes, in upgrading Sweetie 1.0, the virtual minor girl that identified thousands of pedophiles on the internet. The Tilburg researchers are working on a new method (Sweetie 2.0) with which potential perpetrators of webcam sex with children on the internet can be more easily traced.

Millions of potential sex offenders think they can operate on the internet undetected. Children can still be easily approached for sex on the internet. The Sweetie 1.0 sting operation at the end of 2013 provided insight into the size and nature of worldwide webcam child sex tourism. An estimated 700,000 to 800,000 predators roam the internet every day in search of young victims.

At the end of January 2015, the Dutch National Postcode Lottery donated almost € 4 million to Terre des Hommes to further continue the Sweetie project. Together with national and international technical specialists, an advanced software system to combat webcam sex with children across the world will be developed. It will help law enforcement agencies to recognize and/or deter millions of potential perpetrators. The system will be adapted to national and international (legal) frameworks for investigation and prosecution.

Stefan Bogaerts, from the Department of Developmental Psychology, and Bert-Jaap Koops, from the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society (TILT), will head an extensive academic study into the impact and the legal complexities of this preventive approach. Bogaerts and his colleagues will investigate the effectiveness of prevention by deterrence and disincentive. Together with students, Koops will study legal frameworks for combating webcam sex with children and conducting online sting operations.

Pedophiles who operate with different email accounts can be traced by means of the “catch-recatch method.” It works as follows: person X is spotted in chatroom Y and is given a warning with information on the crimes committed, their consequences under criminal law, and tips on how to get help. If X later visits chatroom Z with a different e-mail address, he will still be recognized as X. A second and last warning will be issued. If X is caught a third time, the information will be passed on to the police. Sweetie 2.0 will be launched in about a year and is due to run three to four years.

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The US Department of Defense has gotten permission and is aiming to hire 3,000 infosec professionals to work at the US Cyber Command by the end of this year, and is set to make the majority of the members of its Cyber Mission Force (CMF) achieve at least initial operational capability by the end of the 2016 Fiscal Year.

According to Aliya Sternstein, salaries start at $42,399 and can eventually rise to over triple that amount ($132,122).

The good news for potential employees is that the DoD doesn’t have to evaluate the applicants by traditional competitive criteria – to gain employment with the CMF, the applicants will have to demonstrate unique cybersecurity skills and knowledge.

The US Cyber Command was instituted in 2010, and was tasked with protecting the Department of Defense’s information networks and critical infrastructure, as well as to carry out cyber attacks against adversaries.

“USCYBERCOM confronted serious challenges from the outset. DoD networks had been planned and initially constructed decades earlier in an environment in which redundancy, resiliency, and defensibility were not always primary design characteristics,” Admiral Mike Rogers, the Head of the Cyber Command, shared with the members of the US House committee on Armed Service’s Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities.

“Operators in USCYBERCOM, not surprisingly, could not even see all of our networks, let alone monitor all the traffic coming into and out of them from the Internet. Our people were and are professionals, so that issue was rapidly engaged, but nonetheless the sheer volume of work involved in starting a new, subunified command was substantial.”

“The bad news was that USCYBERCOM was built from the ground up by cutting manning to the bone, initially sacrificing vital support functions and institutional infrastructure to build mission capabilities as fast as possible,” he noted, and announced that things are slowly changing.

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CIA sought to hack Apple iPhones

(Reuters) - CIA researchers have worked for nearly a decade to break the security protecting Apple (AAPL.O) phones and tablets, investigative news site The Intercept reported on Tuesday, citing documents obtained from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The report cites top-secret U.S. documents that suggest U.S. government researchers had created a version of XCode, Apple’s software application development tool, to create surveillance backdoors into programs distributed on Apple’s App Store.

The Intercept has in the past published a number of reports from documents released by whistleblower Snowden. The site’s editors include Glenn Greenwald, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his work in reporting on Snowden’s revelations, and by Oscar-winning documentary maker Laura Poitras.

It said the latest documents, which covered a period from 2006 to 2013, stop short of proving whether U.S. intelligence researchers had succeeded in breaking Apple’s encryption coding, which secures user data and communications.

Efforts to break into Apple products by government security researchers started as early as 2006, a year before Apple introduced its first iPhone and continued through the launch of the iPad in 2010 and beyond, The Intercept said.

Breaching Apple security was part of a top-secret program by the U.S. government, aided by British intelligence researchers, to hack “secure communications products, both foreign and domestic” including Google Android phones, it said.

Silicon Valley technology companies have in recent months sought to restore trust among consumers around the world that their products have not become tools for widespread government surveillance of citizens.

Last September, Apple strengthened encryption methods for data stored on iPhones, saying the changes meant the company no longer had any way to extract customer data on the devices, even if a government ordered it to with a search warrant. Silicon Valley rival Google Inc (GOOGL.O) said shortly afterward that it also planned to increase the use of stronger encryption tools.

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A Macy’s employee at the SouthPark mall store stole jewelry over the course of a year worth nearly $93,000, then pawned the items for cash, the store told police this week.

Macy’s reported the theft to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department on Sunday, a CMPD incident report shows.

CMPD’s financial crimes unit has a person of interest in the case, spokeswoman Officer Jessica Wallin said. No charges have been filed yet, she said.

A Macy’s official, Melissa Goff, referred comment to CMPD because of the ongoing nature of the investigation.

The incident report detailed 46 pieces of jewelry stolen from the store at 4400 Sharon Road in south Charlotte. The median value of the items stolen was $1,300.

The most expensive item, according to the report, was a diamond engagement ring in 14K white gold worth $7,495.

Other pricey items that were swiped from the store include an aquamarine and diamond ring worth $4,800, a diamond ring valued at $4,600 and a diamond statement ring worth $3,800.

The thief mostly stole rings, although necklaces and earrings also were missing, the police report showed.

The least-expensive item, the police report showed, was a Zirconia ring worth $300.

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U.S. immigration officers arrested 2,059 convicted criminal aliens in a five-day operation, the Department of Homeland Security said on Monday.

Those arrested are subject to being removed from the United States, and more than 1,000 have multiple criminal convictions, the department said in a statement.

The sweep, called “Cross Check,” started March 1 and ended March 5. It was the sixth such operation since May 2011, the statement said.

More than 1,000 of those arrested were convicted of felonies, including voluntary manslaughter, child pornography, robbery, kidnapping and rape.

Those arrested include 58 known gang members or affiliates and 89 convicted sex offenders. Most of the misdemeanor convictions were for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the statement said.

The detained foreign nationals who do not face U.S. prosecution will be processed for deportation, it said, without giving a breakdown of the nationalities of those arrested.

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When Interim Police Chief Howard Caviness started at Grambling in July 2014, one of his major goals was obtaining body cameras for the university’s police force. Caviness, who is used to wearing a camera due to years in undercover work in law enforcement, said recent disputes between police officers and public opinion has made getting the cameras a priority. “I’m used to having a camera on me all the time from my undercover days. I knew it was there for my protection as well as theirs (citizens). I think everyone is going to body cameras because of some overzealous police officers around the country,” he said.

With budget restraints, Caviness knew he had to look for other sources of funding that would not increase student fees. In October 2014, he received a Title 3 Grant worth $100,000 to pay for an upgraded communication system and equipment, including body cameras. Grambling’s 10 police officers began wearing the cameras in February, making GSU one of a growing number of university police departments to implement the use of body cameras.

The tiny cameras are about an inch and a half long and are worn with a lanyard and clipped to a shirt. They cost $80 each and are light, portable and wireless. The cameras also have a still photography mode, so officers can take crime scene photos for evidence. The addition of the body cameras is about protection and accountability. It holds the officers more accountable for their actions while on duty, and it gives officers and the public a clear audio and visual record of disputed events.

“I think it reminds an officer that he or she should remain professional at all times, especially with a video going at all times under their chins. It’s also about accountability. We get complaints about our officers from time to time, so now it’s not just an episode of he said/she said. You have the tools to protect yourself. It protects the students as well as the officers,” he said.

According to a November 2014 study by the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology, wearing body cameras serves as a preventive measure that reduces escalation during encounters between police officers and members of the public. The student response to the body cameras has been largely positive, Caviness said. The one worry has been that the body camera footage could be doctored by a police officer. This is not a concern, according to Caviness, who says officers cannot alter the footage, since they do not have access to it. Chief Caviness is the only person with access to the body camera footage.

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Matthew S. Liebheit, 39, of Moro, IL, was charged Friday with a three count Complaint charging him with two counts of Theft, Embezzlement, or Misapplication by a Bank Officer or Employee, and one count of False Bank Entries.

The charges stem from a purported bank robbery at Liberty Bank in Bethalto, Illinois, on December 13, 2014. Liebheit, a bank manager at Liberty Bank, called police to report a bank robbery, indicating that a masked individual forced him into the bank at gun point prior to the bank opening. He gave a description of the suspect’s vehicle as being a tan station wagon or crossover style vehicle. He stated that he was forced to give that individual over $200,000 from the bank’s vault.

Further investigation revealed that Liebheit’s truck was used by the masked individual and a band of ten dollar bills was found in a search of Liebheit’s truck. Additional investigation showed that Liebheit had allegedly altered withdrawal documents from a Liberty Bank customer’s account to reflect a larger than intended withdrawal from that customer’s account. The day before the purported robbery, Liebheit allegedly falsified documentation to show a substantial deposit to that customer’s account.

Liebheit is scheduled for an initial appearance on the complaint today at 11 a.m. in federal court in East St. Louis.

If convicted, Liebheit faces a term in federal prison of not more than thirty years, a fine of up to $1,000,000, and a term of supervised release of not more than five years.

A criminal complaint is merely a document used to begin a federal prosecution. A defendant is presumed innocent of any charges unless or until a jury decides that the person is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bethalto Police Department. The case is assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Laura Reppert.

This content has been reproduced from its original source.

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ATLANTA – Police say two Atlanta street gangs used fake car ads to lure victims on Craigslist. Seven people have been arrested, including a mother and her two sons. Police are attributing the robberies to two street gangs.

Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Darryl Tolleson said more than $20,000 was stolen from the victims in 15 robberies. “We are fortunate that none of these robberies turned into something far worse,” he said.

That sentiment is not lost on Janeailos Pachero, one of the victims.

“Oh man, I was thinking I was going to die,” he said.

Pachero was lured to 1797 Hadlock Street in SW Atlanta on July 3, 2014. He saw an ad on Craigslist for a 2007 BMW. The alleged owners of the vehicle told Pachero they wanted to get rid of it because they were moving out of town and would sell it for $4,000.

Pachero was told to bring the money in cash to the address. But when he got there he didn’t see the car.

“Two guys, they come and put the gun to my head and me, my friends, so they take everything, my wallet, the money, the phones,” he said.

From June to December 2014, 14 other victims were robbed at the same location or within a block. The robberies either took place on Hadlock Street or at an apartment complex at 1700 Stanton Road.

At a news conference at Atlanta Police Headquarters Tuesday, seven arrests were announced. Tayza Harris, 41, and her two sons, JuJuane, 17, and Darious, 21, along with Aqueelah Jannah, 18, Jacorey Johnson, 25, Tereka Mills, 20, and Cameron Neeley, 18, were charged with Participation in Criminal Street Gang Activity and Armed Robbery.

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