WORLD NEWS FLASH
UNITED STATES
With all of the mass shootings in the U.S., we have decided to approach this ongoing crisis differently.
Information recent as of 4-12-23 at 12 pm
2023 Mass Shooting Total (unofficial): 154
Days reached in Year 2023: 102
Latest High Profile Incident
Location: Old National Bank – Louisville, KY.
Time: Around 8:30 a.m., Eastern Time.
Deceased: At least 5. (Josh Barrick, 40; Deana Eckert, 57; Tommy Elliott, 63; Juliana Farmer, 45; and Jim Tutt, 64. All were bank employees.)
Injured: At least 9. Two were police officers.
Shooter: Connor James Sturgeon, age 25.
Weapon: AR-15 style rifle, legally bought six days before the shooting.
Motive: Not confirmed. Worked at the bank, reportedly told he was about to be fired.
Status: Dead after shootout with cops. Unknown if slain by his own hands or by police.
Notes: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear knew Tommy Elliott, one of the deceased victims.
Thoughts & Prayers
President Joe Biden: “Once again, our nation is in mourning after a senseless act of gun violence. Jill and I are praying for those killed and injured in the tragic shooting in Louisville, and for the survivors who will carry grief and trauma for the rest of their lives. We are grateful to the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department officers who quickly and courageously stepped into the line of fire to save others.
“How many more Americans must die before Republicans in Congress will act to protect our communities? It’s long past time that we require safe storage of firearms. Require background checks for all gun sales. Eliminate gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability. We can and must do these things now.
“A strong majority of Americans want lawmakers to act on commonsense gun safety reforms. Instead, from Florida to North Carolina to the U.S. House of Representatives, we’ve watched Republican officials double down on dangerous bills that make our schools, places of worship, and communities less safe. It’s unconscionable, it’s reckless, and too many Americans are paying with their lives.”
EUROPE
CONFIDENCE IN ECONOMIC GROWTH WITHERS
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast in their latest World Economic Outlook published on April 11, that global growth will bottom out at 2.8 percent this year before rising modestly to around three percent in 2024, representing a 0.1 percent fall on its January projections.
Global inflation is also heading down, signaling that the tightening of monetary policy through major interest rate rises is bearing fruit, though more slowly than initially anticipated, said the IMF’s Director of Research, from 8.7 percent last year to 7 percent this year, and 4.9 percent in 2024.
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said the gradual global recovery from both the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “remains on track,” with China’s reopened economy rebounding strongly, while previously disrupted supply chains are unwinding.
He said this year’s economic slowdown is concentrated in advanced economies, especially the Eurozone and in the United Kingdom, “where growth is expected to fall to 0.8 percent and -0.3 percent this year before rebounding to 1.4 and 1 percent respectively.”
In contrast, despite a 0.5 percentage point downward revision, many emerging market and developing economies are picking up, with growth accelerating to 4.5 percent by the end of 2023 from 2.8 percent at the close of 2022.
The IMF Director, who also serves as Economic Counsellor, warned that as the recent instability triggered by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and others, shows “the situation remains fragile. Once again, downside risks dominate and the fog around the world economic outlook has thickened.”
He said inflation was still stubbornly high, more than expected by the markets, while falling inflation was mainly due to falling energy and food prices. Only today, the UN’s food agency (FAO) price index, showed another fall, 20 per cent down on the worrying high of a year ago. However, that fall has not translated into similar declines in most supermarkets for most consumers.
“We expect year-end to year-end core inflation will slow to 5.1 percent this year, a sizeable upward revision of 0.6 percentage points from our January update, and well above target,” said Mr. Gourinchas.
He said that labor markets – reflected in low unemployment rates – “remain very strong in most advanced economies,” which “may call for monetary policy to tighten further or to stay tighter for longer than currently anticipated.”
Also, Gourinchas said he remained “unconvinced” that there was a big risk of an uncontrolled wage-price spiral, with nominal wage gains continuing to lag behind price increases, implying a decline in real wages.
He concluded by warning that a sharp tightening of global financial conditions due to a so-called ‘risk-off’ event, when investors rush to play safe and sell assets, “could have a dramatic impact on credit conditions and public finances, especially in emerging market and developing economies. It would precipitate large capital outflows, a sudden increase in risk premia, a dollar appreciation in a rush to safety, and major declines in global activity amid lower confidence, household spending and investment.”
In that event, he said, growth could slow to just one percent this year, implying near stagnant per capita income. But this is unlikely to happen, the IMF Director suggests: “We estimate the probability of such an outcome at about 15 percent.”
WORLD
CRIMINAL MARKETPLACE SHUT DOWN
Genesis Market has been taken down in an operation involving judicial and law enforcement authorities in the United States, nine European Union countries, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. Genesis Market was a criminal marketplace accessible on the dark web and clear web that sold packages of account access credentials – including usernames and passwords for email, bank accounts, and social media.
The credentials had been stolen from malware-infected computers around the world and were subsequently used by cybercriminals to commit cyber-enabled fraud.
In a coordinated action supported by Eurojust and Europol, the infrastructure and operations of Genesis Market were dismantled and law enforcement in 13 countries conducted more than 100 arrests and more than 200 searches of Genesis Market customers who had purchased stolen access credentials.
Since its inception in 2018, Genesis Market was one of the largest facilitators of cybercrime. Its main criminal commodity was digital identities. The illicit website offered for sale what the market owners referred to as ‘bots.’ These bots were basically packages of stolen credentials harvested from infected computers around the world. Genesis Market’s administrators obtained this victim data through malware deployments and account takeover attacks.
At the time of the takedown, Genesis Market was advertising for sale account credentials stolen from approximately 460,000 computer devices located in almost every country in the world. Customers of Genesis Market could use these credentials to gain illegal access to victims’ computer systems, which would then allow them to commit further cybercrimes.
Genesis Market customers were located all over the world and actively purchasing stolen packages of victim data until this takedown. The U.S. FBI has worked with its law enforcement partners to identify prolific users of Genesis Market who have purchased and used stolen access credentials to commit fraud and other cybercrimes.
The U.S. Department of Justice also worked with its judicial counterparts through Eurojust to ensure coordinated action. This effort resulted in hundreds of leads being sent by the FBI to law enforcement partners in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
As part of the coordinated effort referred to by law enforcement agencies as Operation Cookie Monster, on April 4-5, more than 100 suspects were arrested, and 200 property searches were conducted in 13 countries. In addition, the infrastructure and main domains of the criminal website were seized and taken down.
Eurojust actively facilitated the cross-border judicial cooperation between the national authorities involved. Eurojust hosted a coordination meeting in March 2023 to prepare for this week’s operation and hosted a command center on April 4 to resolve any legal issues arising during the parallel operations in 13 countries.
Europol’s European Cybercrime Center (EC3) has been supporting this investigation since 2019 by coordinating the international activities with the help of the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT), hosted at Europol. EC3’s support included data analysis, organizing operational meetings and facilitating the exchange of information. A command post was also set up at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands to ensure the smooth running of the action day across the world.
The Dutch authorities have developed a portal to help potential victims check whether their digital identity has been stolen. Visit politie.nl/checkyourhack and fill in your email address to check whether your credentials were available on Genesis Market. In addition, victim credentials obtained over the course of the investigation have been provided to HaveIBeenPwned.com, and potential victims may also check the HaveIBeenPwned.com website to see if their credentials were compromised so they know whether to change or modify passwords and other authentication credentials.
