In recent news, the FBI sent out alerts of a new cryptocurrency investment scam that’s sweeping America, the “pig-butchering” scam. Originating from China, criminals behind this cryptocurrency scheme have expanded their operations to Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, and Malaysia. Researchers discovered that organized crime syndicates in China have produced playbooks, guides, and scripts that were distributed to amateur scammers and forced laborers to carry out these cyber scams.
Named in reference to the practice of fattening up a pig before slaughter, this fraud involves a scammer contacting random victims and earning trust overtime before exploiting them through fake investments and disappearing with all their money. These scammers initially ensnare victims by contacting them through SMS texting, social media platforms, or online dating platforms under a fake identity. They strike up a conversation and continue talking to the victim for weeks until they’ve let their guard down. After bonding, the attacker convinces the victim to invest and move their funds into cryptocurrency for a promised high rate of return. Victims are persuaded to send more and more money and are even shown falsified finance statements to convince them further that their investments are making a considerable return. These cybercriminals essentially “fatten up” their unsuspecting victims’ digital wallets, then steal all their money.
These “pig-butchering” scammers typically target vulnerable people such as the elderly, singles on online dating platforms, people with long-term health problems, and lonely people on holidays. Similar to romance scams, “pig-butchering” scams take a heavy toll on victims both financially and psychologically. Just last year alone (2021) there were nearly $430 million in losses reported by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Being aware, educated, and vigilant are the first steps to avoiding these scams.
- Don’t reveal your income or financial status to someone you don’t know
- Don’t reveal personal and sensitive information to people and websites you don’t trust (banking info, social security, passport, etc.)
- Don’t invest, trade, or send money based on the advice of an online “friend”
- Don’t invest in a trading site that promotes unbelievable profits
Smoke testing is a term used to describe the testing process for servers after patches are applied. 
Estimating an average time for patching servers and PCs can be a bit tricky. It can vary from one month to the next, depending upon the number and complexity of the patches released by your software vendors. You must consider all versions of operating systems and have a complete inventory of all your application software to do this job correctly. Our experience has shown that manual patching of systems takes on average of about 1.5 hours each.
This is a basic cost calculator for you to compute your typical monthly cost for patching your servers, PCs, laptops, tablets and associated application software. It also forms the basis for you to begin calculating your Return on Investment for software patching, or for comparison with alternatives to the manual process of patching operating systems and application software—such as Patch Management as a Service, also known as Vulnerability Management as a Service.