Tag Archives: Palo Alto

SBF Flew Business As Judge Recuses From FTX Case!

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The FTX drama continues as SBF was seen flying business class, while Judge Ronnie Abrams recused herself from the case!

 

Judge Ronnie Abrams Recuses From SBF FTX Case!

The FTX drama continues with the shocking announcement by US District Judge Ronnie Abrams over a potential conflict of interest.

On Friday afternoon, December 23, Federal Judge Ronnie Abrams of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York recused herself from the FTX case.

The judge’s husband, Greg D. Andres, is a partner at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, which advised FTX in 2021. Though Andres himself did not personally advise FTX, Abrams chose to recuse herself from the case “to avoid any possible conflict, or the appearance of one.”

The order also stated that Davis Polk & Wardwell previously represented parties “that may be adverse to FTX and Defendant Bankman-Fried,” though Andres allegedly did not represent those clients either.

RONNIE ABRAMS, United States District Judge:

It has come to the Court’s attention that the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, at which my husband is a partner, advised FTX in 2021, as well as represented parties that may be adverse to FTX and Defendant Bankman-Fried in other proceedings (or potential proceedings). My husband has had no involvement in any of these representations. These matters are confidential and their substance is unknown to the Court. Nonetheless, to avoid any possible conflict, or the appearance of one, the Court hereby recuses itself from this action. See 28

U.S.C. § 455.

This decision came just one day after Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was released from custody pending trial on eight criminal charges including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and violations of federal campaign finance laws.

It is unknown why Judge Ronnie Abrams chose to wait until now to recuse herself from the FTX case. But it should be pointed that it was a different judge – Gabrial Gorenstein, who approved the record-setting $250 million bond that did not require SBF to pay a single cent up front.

A new judge from the Southern District of New York will now have to be selected to oversee Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial.

Read more : SBF Released On “No Cash” $250 Million Bail Bond!

 

SBF Free + Flying Business On “No Cash Up Front” FTX Case Bail!

In the meantime, the disgraced FTX co-founder was spotted “chilling” in the American Airlines Greenwich Business Class lounge located at Terminal 8 of the John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City.

Sam Bankman-Fried was accompanied by his parents, FBI agents and lawyers. He had full access to what looks like an Acer Predator gaming laptop, and a smartphone. When he was asked for a photo, SBF replied, “Haha maybe not today“.

You may recall that, on December 9, SBF claimed that he did not have access to (much of) his professional or personal data, despite having obvious access to a laptop and a mobile phone.

1) I still do not have access to much of my data — professional or personal. So there is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won’t be as helpful as I’d like. But as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th.

SBF was later spotted in the Business class section of an American Airlines flight, “disguised with a beanie”. He appeared to be engaged in conversation with a suited executive.

The suited executive could be his lawyer, Mark Cohen, who may have been accompanying the disgraced FTX co-founder to his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, where he has to serve his house arrest while awaiting trial.

Recommended : Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang Plead Guilty To FTX Fraud!

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Gone In 60 Seconds : Apple Store Robbed Of $35K!

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Two thieves made off with $35,000 worth of Apple products at an Apple Store in broad daylight… in just 60 seconds!

Take a look at the viral video, and find out what happened!

 

Gone In 60 Seconds : Apple Store Robbed Of $35K!

At around 4:17 PM on Friday, November 25, 2022, a pair of thieves brazenly stole $35,000 worth of Apple products in front of shocked customers and store workers at the Apple Store in Palo Alto, California!

The Black Friday heist showed the two masked men yanking multiple iPhones and MacBook laptops from the display tables to stuff in their bags, while pushing past customers and store workers.

A customer can be heard on the video asking, “Should we stop them?”, and an Apple Store worker responded, “Let them go”.

The minute-long video showed just how quickly the two thieves were able to “work the room”, to steal all those Apple devices!

Recommended : Apple Limits AirDrop To Help China Prevent Protests!

https://www.techarp.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Palo-Alto-Apple-Store-Black-Friday-2022-robbery.mp4?_=1

Even though they were unchallenged by the customers and store workers, one of the thieves “made a general statement to the crowd of physical violence” if they attempted to stop the robbery.

That escalated the crime from merely “shoplifting” to a robbery, according to the police, who confirmed that about $35,000 worth of Apple phones and laptops were taken.

One of the suspects was wearing a beige hoodie with blue jeans, white shoes and a red backpack, while the other was wearing a blue camouflage hoodie with black Adidas pants, red shoes and a black Adidas backpack.

The police are currently looking for both men, described as black males in their late teens or early 20s, who fled in a red Mazda hatchback and were last seen by a security guard driving north on Highway 101 at around 4:30 PM.

The Palo Alto Apple Store has been robbed three times in recent years. In 2018, it was robbed twice within 24 hours, with thieves taking over $100,000 worth of merchandise, while in 2016, robbers smashed a rental car through its store front and made off with thousands of dollars worth of Apple products.

Recommended : Apple To Move MORE iPhone Production Out Of China!

 

What Apple Is Doing To Cut Down On Store Heists

As its products are considered high-value, Apple has seen its store in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Portland and Washington, D.C. targeted in large heists.

As a result, Apple has initiated several measures to make it difficult for thieves to sell their loot of stolen Apple devices.

For example, demo devices like the ones just stolen from the Palo Alto Apple Store would have been registered with an Apple ID, and can therefore be easily tracked using the Find My iPhone service.

These demo devices also have proximity software installed since 2016, which automatically disables them once they are taken outside of their assigned Apple Store.

Apple also has the ability to disable and track stolen devices, even those that are brand-new, in-the-box. Those who purchased them will find that their devices can’t be turned off, and their location would be sent to local authorities.

The stolen iPhones will also display a warning to the user, informing them that the device has been disabled and being tracked, and that the local authorities has been alerted. The user is advised to return the iPhone to the Apple Store where it was stolen from.

Please return to Apple Walnut Street

This device has been disabled and is being tracked. Local authorities will be alerted.

This pretty much makes these stolen devices useless, if the thieves intend to sell them to other people. They may, however, find some use as spare parts for far less profit, of course

Recommended : Apple Watch Explodes, Apple Tries To Cover It Up!

Apple is also blocking access to repairs for lost or stolen devices. For starters – Apple will refuse to repair iPhones if its Find My iPhone feature cannot be disabled (to prove ownership).

In addition, Apple repair technicians can now see if an iPhone has been reported lost or stolen in the internal MobileGenius or GXS system. If the device was reported lost or stolen, they will decline to repair the device.

All these measures will mean that the viral $35,000 heist at the Palo Alto Apple Store will not amount to much for the thieves.

In fact, Apple is the winner in this robbery – its demo devices would have certainly been insured. In a way, Apple “sold” the stolen $35,000 inventory in this robbery to their insurance company!

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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AceDeceiver : First iOS Trojan Exploits Apple DRM Design

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Palo Alto Networks discovered a new family of iOS malware that successfully infected non-jailbroken devices. They’ve named it “AceDeceiver”.

What makes AceDeceiver different from previous iOS malware is that instead of abusing enterprise certificates as some iOS malware has over the past two years, AceDeceiver manages to install itself without any enterprise certificate at all. It does so by exploiting design flaws in Apple’s DRM mechanism, and even as Apple has removed AceDeceiver from App Store, it may still spread thanks to a novel attack vector.

AceDeceiver is the first iOS malware they’ve seen that abuses certain design flaws in Apple’s DRM protection mechanism — namely FairPlay — to install malicious apps on iOS devices regardless of whether they are jailbroken. This technique is called “FairPlay Man-In-The-Middle (MITM)” and has been used since 2013 to spread pirated iOS apps, but this is the first time they’ve seen it used to spread malware.

Note : The FairPlay MITM attack technique was also presented at the USENIX Security Symposium in 2014; however, attacks using this technique are still occurring successfully.

 

AceDeceiver Sneaks Into App Store

Three different iOS apps in the AceDeceiver family were uploaded to the official App Store between July 2015 and February 2016, and all of them claimed to be wallpaper apps.

These apps successfully bypassed Apple’s code review at least seven times (including the first time each was uploaded and then four rounds of code updates, which require an additional review by Apple for each instance) using a method similar to that used by ZergHelper, where the app tailors its behavior based on the physical geographic region in which it’s being executed.

In this case, AceDeceiver only displays malicious behaviors when a user is located in China, but that would be easy for the attacker to change in any time.

Apple removed these three apps from the App Store after we reported them in late February 2016. However, the attack is still viable because the FairPlay MITM attack only requires these apps to have been available in the App Store once. As long as an attacker could get a copy of authorization from Apple, the attack doesn’t require current App Store availability to spread those apps.

 

How AceDeceiver Works

To carry out the attack, the author created a Windows client called ”爱思助手 (Aisi Helper)” to perform the FairPlay MITM attack. Aisi Helper purports to be software that provides services for iOS devices such as system re-installation, jailbreaking, system backup, device management and system cleaning.

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But what it’s also doing is surreptitiously installing the malicious apps on any iOS device that is connected to the PC on which Aisi Helper is installed. (Of note, only the most recent app is installed on the iOS device(s) at the time of infection, not all three at the same time.) These malicious iOS apps provide a connection to a third party app store controlled by the author for user to download iOS apps or games.

It encourages users to input their Apple IDs and passwords for more features, and provided these credentials will be uploaded to AceDeceiver’s C2 server after being encrypted. We also identified some earlier versions of AceDeceiver that had enterprise certificates dated March 2015.

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