thecrimeshop

2019-11-13

Black Death Strikes Again

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Inner Mongolia, China

Cristal M Clark

Sometimes when things make a comeback, such as fashion from the 70’s we love it, big hair from the 80’s not so much.

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The same can be said for the Black Death, yes the plague, you know the disease that wiped out roughly one third of Europe way back in the 14th century, well it has made an unsurprising comeback, this time in China. In fact, it has sickened two individuals in Inner Mongolia, which just so happens to be an autonomous region of northern China.

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Truthfully, the plague has never really been wiped out entirely, the World Health Organization reports that they see between 1,000 and 2,000 reported cases a year.

So what’s the deal? Why is the news blowing this up now?

Well, the middle-aged married couple afflicted with the plague currently has a virulent version of the infection called pneumonic plague. Pneumonic plague is nearly always fatal if not properly treated.

In most cases when individuals are infected with the plague with the proper prompt treatment it is resolved.

There are 3 variants of plague, with the most common being that of the bubonic plague, which has a mortality rate of 1 to 15 percent if treated immediately, but it’s fairly hard to really determine the proper death rate because cases in the developing world aren’t often reliably diagnosed as you might imagine.

Then we have septicemic plague, which can develop if bubonic plague is left untreated. 2 Mongolians were got the plague back in May after they ate the raw kidney of a marmot, that couple subsequently died of septicemic plague. Ironically, in the region it is believed eating the raw innards of a marmot will bring someone good health.

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Lastly, the least common and most deadly variant of the plague happens to be pneumonic, which the 2 patients from Inner Mongolia are experiencing. That infection, which can result from untreated plague that’s spread to the lungs, can spread through airborne droplets.

This variant is what nightmares have been made from, the infected individual will develop intensely painful, red “buboes” around the site of their infection which are really just swollen lymph nodes doing what they do, try to rid the body of the bacteria responsible for the illness.

The buboes are followed by a high fever, chills, and extreme weakness. Then the plague circulates to the bloodstream or the lungs it will cause the unsightly blackening and dead skin.

The United States reports about 7 human plague cases each year, usually just the bubonic form.

And so far, no vaccine exists which can protect anyone from the plague.

Cristal M Clark

2019-11-11

Political Themed Ransomware is Finally Here

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Trump and Clinton Ransomware Hits the Internet

Cristal M Clark

I’ve actually been wondering where our political themed ransomware is, like scammers have literally tried everything else right? Well the good news is, political themed ransomware is finally here.

Cisco Talos Group discovered a payload named Trump.exe meaning that malware developers have finally begun to add some politics in with their malicious payloads.

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Cisco Talos found the politically-themed payload while investigating a recent MalSpam campaign, then they decided to look into other malicious programs that contained political references or themes and found hundreds of other examples.

The Talos Group discovered a ransomware called the “Donald Trump Screen of Death,” which is a screen locker. The screen locker attempts to lock users out of Windows while showing them various pictures of President Trump, which gives me daymares honestly.

They also found a program called the Trump Crypter which is used to obfuscate malware code so that it cannot be detected by security software.

This actually has been going on for just a little while.

Does anyone remember the “CIA Election AntiCheat Control” that had been discovered back in 2016, that showed a picture of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump that told victims to send $50 or their vote in the upcoming election wouldn’t count?

Then there’s the harmless program called Dancing Hillary that allowed users to make Hillary Clinton dance.

President Barack Obama’s likeness has sadly also been used by malware developers to create an injector with an Obama theme. This injector can be used to inject malicious code into legitimate processes in an attempt to evade security software.

And because 2020 is an election year, my guess is we are going to start to see a hell of a lot more of this going around.

Cristal M Clark

2019-11-10

Illegally Imprisoned – Man Fighting to Get Released

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Iowa Court of Appeals vs Benjamin Schreiber

Cristal M Clark

Benjamin Schreiber was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1997 after being convicted of first-degree murder. Benjamin says that his life sentence has been fulfilled and he should be released because he claims that he momentarily died back in March.

Technically speaking if he did actually die momentarily, he did serve his life sentence but the Iowa Court of Appeals is just not having it on this one.

See Benjamin developed large kidney stones that led to septic poisoning, according to court documents.

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He eventually fell unconscious in his cell in March and was taken to a local hospital, where he was resuscitated five separate times. Meaning that his sentence has been fulfilled and he argues, he is imprisoned illegally and should be immediately released.

In its opinion, the appeals court said a “plain reading” of Iowa law says defendants guilty of a class A felony “must spend the rest of their natural life in prison, regardless of how long that period of time ends up being or any events occurring before the defendant’s life ends.”

The reality is however, that every legality, every law is based off of interpretation, meaning that whilst you and I might interpret one thing a certain way, a judge may see it an entirely different way.

I am not one to advocate a convicted murderer but honestly he legally died therefore my interpretation of the law is that he is in fact being held illegally.

My guess is that Benjamin is going to take his case to a higher court, he has been turned down by the lower courts and now the Iowa Court of Appeals. You kind of have to hand it to the guy for coming up with such clever way to fight the rest of his life sentence.

Cristal M Clark

2019-11-03

Smugglers Outsmart Trump’s Border Wall

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Trump’s Border Wall – A Complete Joke

Cristal M Clark

We’ve sort of seen it all with Trump’s wall, people climbing it, digging under it, stealing parts of it and now, it appears that smugglers have decided, fuck it and are in fact, cutting right through the wall.

US agents and officials with knowledge of border wall damage are reporting to multiple news outlets that yes, smugglers have been cutting through the steel and concrete portions of the wall, creating openings wide enough for people and drugs to be smuggled through said openings.

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What’s really funny is that Trump really does not seem to be bothered by this news, in fact when asked about it, his response was “You can cut through just about anything.”

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Tf? Didn’t he inform the world a couple of weeks ago that he was building a wall in Colorado that you can’t cut, crawl over or dig under?

The smugglers are utilizing reciprocating saws which can cut through the bollards in a matter of minutes. Taking it a step further, smugglers also try to hide a breach in the barrier, by returning the cut in the bollard to its original position or using a putty that looks like the hole has been fixed, so that they can keep using that opening.

Regardless of being fixed and welding the damaged bollards, smugglers still return to the same spot because the metal and the concrete at the bollards’ cores have already been weakened, making it easier to damage again.

You sort of have to hand it to the cartels and smugglers for showing us all just how pathetically ridiculous Trump’s ideas for keeping the US safe from illegal imigration and drugs, and just fail, over and over again.

And BTW the wall at the southern border and all of it’s fixes are being paid for by us, US taxpayers.

Cristal M Clark

2019-10-31

The Doll That Can Visit Your Dreams and Stop Your Heart

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The Shadow Doll

Cristal M Clark

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Most of you know about Ed and Lorraine Warren, they are well known for investigating hauntings, demonic or evil hauntings if you will. Likewise, most of you also know about Annabelle. Not a soul really knows how or why the doll was created, but the doll is has been the subject of countless articles and stories, the main character in movies, and she is kept under lock and key at The Warrens Occult Museum.

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Another terrifying find at the museum is The Shadow Doll.

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That’s right turns out Ed and Lorraine have quite a collection of demon dolls.

The name is isn’t super scary but the doll looks terrifying and the story behind the doll is even more terrifying.

It is rumored that if a picture were to be taken of the doll, it would project itself into the dreams of the person who dared to look it in the eye. The dream would be so intensely nightmarish that the victims would either suffer from a heart attack or forever be frightened of sleep because of the horrifying looking doll.

The shadow doll was found in an antique shop, a couple liked the doll and purchased it. After the purchase, the couple began to encounter the eeriest of nightmares. They later found out that they were experiencing the same nightmares of the cursed doll, and that the husband had scratches all over his back and neck, which could only be traced back to the shadow doll.

It is rumored that the doll is responsible for a few deaths but no details are given.

The Warren’s files do not state why this doll was created however, the files state that it was used in satanic rituals, and it was created by black magic using human and animal bones.

What you find in the museum is the doll staring blankly with it’s gaping mouth open and ready to devour your very soul.

Cristal M Clark

2019-10-29

Mourners Served Hash Cake at Funeral?

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Northern Germany

Cristal M Clark

I’m fairly certain everyone thought this was going to be a story hailing from a funeral in Colorado but as luck would have it, it’s not.

Going out for coffee and cake happens to be a German tradition after a funeral, usually hash cake is not part of the tradition.

Apparently, back in August, local police in northern Germany reported that 13 funeral-goers at a restaurant in Wiethagen experienced “nausea and dizziness” i.e. being buzzed, after eating some fresh hash cake after a funeral.

Edibles by the way, do tend to be more potent as opposed to smoking weed.

After a quick investigation found a restaurant employee’s daughter had been asked to bake the cake.

But the 18-year-old had also baked a “hash cake” for a separate occasion, and the mother took the wrong dessert to work.

That’ll be the last time this girls parents ask her to bake a cake for just about any occasion not to mention that now the young lady in question is also under investigation by the police.

So remember folks, while it’s all fun and games eating edibles with your friends, it’s just never a good idea to serve hash cake at a funeral, some of the older generations just can’t handle it.

Cristal M Clark

2019-10-28

Hacking High Tech Cars

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Hackers Infiltrating Cars Since 2010

Cristal M Clark

If you are anything like me, you love new tech, especially if we can access it hands free in our motorized transports. Let’s face it, technology makes our everyday lives easier. A new standard for new cars is to develop them and sell them full of modern technology which comes with a lot of risk because it actually gives cybercriminals endless ways to access the vehicle and take over your car.

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Cybersecurity firm IntSights recently released, “Under The Hood: Cybercriminals Exploit Automotive Industry’s Software Features,” which just so happens to be a study on how hackers are managing to get into cars and do a decent amount of damage.

What’s worse is that they have been doing just that since roughly 2010.

The report states; “The pressure to deliver products as fast as possible puts a big strain on vehicle security capabilities, manufacturing facilities, and automotive data. Industry leaders have since come to understand that cybercrime threats to cars were not as far-fetched as originally thought.”

That’s right, apparently originally no one actually took the threat as seriously as they should have. You see back in the day, cars were considered way, way, waaaay too difficult to hack into and not worth the amount of time and energy required.

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Welcome to 2019, where people are struggling worldwide, where you get paid more to break laws, as cars have added things like Wi-Fi, GPS, and other features, the amount of ways to attack have increased. The average car now includes thousands of pieces of hardware as well as millions of lines of code, giving cybercriminals ample opportunity to test their methods.

“IntSights discovered easy-fo-find online shops that sell car hacking tools on the clear web. These online shops sell services that disconnect automobile immobilizers, as well as services that sell code grabbers and forums that give bad actors a complete tutorial on how to steal vehicles.”

And some of you think puffer laws are here to protect us, these days you don’t even need to leave your car running unattended for it to be stolen, all thanks to modern technology.

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The IntSights report also pointed out that most car hacking tools can in fact, be found on websites or forums like Omerta.cc, Sindikat, Nulled.to, Carmasters.org, Autoteamsforums.ru, ffffff.ru, and Dublikat, which provide a wealth of information, tools, code grabbers, and tutorials. There are also a bevy of Russian sites offering help like forum.grabbs.org, Migalki.pw, and Chipadla.ru. IntSights went onto say that the most popular method involves attacking a car’s CAN protocol, which can give a hacker full access to all of the vehicle’s functions.

“The biggest challenge for hackers attempting to exploit remote access points is the required proximity to do so. Attacking a moving car can be near impossible if the hacker needs to physically connect to it. However, there are ways to bypass this problem: Attacking a car via a cellular network, breaking into its Wi-Fi access points, or breaking in via the manufacturer’s backend system, to which many modern cars are connected.”

Hackers could gain access through car companies too, because those companies now communicate with vehicles through applications that send information to them. If there is a breach of the car company’s servers, like we see in the news for pretty much any company these days, a cybercriminal could easily access the information shared between the company servers and the vehicle’s brain.

Hackers have also been able to load malware onto a car owner’s phone, through phishing campaigns or fake apps, and infect vehicles that way. Cybercriminals have even had success manipulating cellular networks through built in SIM cards, which car companies use to extract real-time information and update firmware.

If you think that is bad, think again because cybercriminals have also been able to attack a car’s Remote Keyless System, which allows owners to open and start their vehicle without a key. The key fob technology used for this system is decades old and is considered tough to crack, but a new generation of code grabbers has allowed car thieves to either outright mimic the signals or intercept them.

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While all of this seems like an unimaginable nightmare, I can assure you that it is not. Like it or not, if you are connected with your car, refrigerator, coffee maker, security system, pretty much anything these days, you are at risk of being hacked.

Cristal M Clark

2019-10-27

Real Life Zombies

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The Serpent and the Rainbow

Cristal M Clark

One of my all time favorite horror classics is Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow, it’s a perplexing take on an age old magic some say is dark, some say is not. Voodoo is more often than not associated with the art of dark magic, however it is a highly misunderstood religion by the masses and, technically speaking the true origins of the Voodoo are debatable and unknown to most everyone except for maybe those that practice the art.

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The movie the Serpent and the Rainbow starring Bill Pullman was in fact inspired by true events. In 1985, the American graduate student Wade Davis published a book with an extremely long title: “The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist’s Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombies, and Magic.”

Wade Davis claimed that he had discovered that secret Haitian societies used tetrodotoxin, a toxin found in puffer fish, to trick people into thinking they’d died and come back to life as zombies from Haitian folklore. Yet many other scientists denounced Davis’ claim as bunk. Tetrodotoxin expert C.Y. Kao, called it “a carefully planned, premeditated case of scientific fraud.”

Wade Davis’ real journey through Haiti introduced him to a type of black magic priest called a bucor. These bucors are said to possess the unique power of bringing the dead back as zombie slaves.

Wade Davis through his journey discovered Clairvius Narcisse, a supposedly real zombie, who had been feeling under the weather. Clairvius checked into a local hospital where upon arrival, Clairvius began experiencing a host of ailments including a fever, trouble breathing, and what he claimed were bugs crawling all over his skin. It wasn’t too long after that doctors pronounced him dead.

Clairvius was buried a few days later and everyone would have thought that to be the end of the story, until one sunny day in 1981 when Angelina Narcisse, Clairvius’ sister, saw him walking down the street looking very much alive and almost he same as he looked back in 1962, with the exception of the zombie like glow, not to mention that two American doctors had declared him dead back in 1962.

Yes 1962.

It is believed that a bucor can place an individual into a trance that can fool doctors into believing that they are dead. Once buried, the bucor dug up the body and sell them to as zombie slave labor.

Wade Davis believed this is precisely what happened to Clairvius.

Through his research, Wade believed that Clairvius was given tetrodotoxin powder through an abrasion on his skin. This powerful toxin from the pufferfish would have sent Clairvius into a comatose state which would have fooled doctors into believing he was dead.

In addition to the pufferfish toxin, Wade also found that Datura, a powerful hallucinogen (along with ground up human bone), were also common ingredients in zombie powder. Wade concluded that tetrodotoxin was key in causing a victim’s initial death, but it was Datura which produced the amnesia and delirium which maintained them as zombies for decades.

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Whether or not you are a believer, it’s hard to argue the real life tale of Clairvius Narcisse, a man who died in 1962 who was discovered walking around his village in 1981 after hardly aging in the least.

Cristal M Clark