Virtual Cyber Sleuth

11/23/2025

Anti fraud tool!

09/09/2025

Uh oh…

WhatsApp has announced that crooks may have exploited a security vulnerability in its messaging apps for Apple iOS and macOS.

09/09/2025

:(

We are saddened to share news of the recent passing of ACFE President Emeritus James “Jim” D. Ratley, CFE.

Jim passed away peacefully on Sunday, August 24, 2025, surrounded by his family and loved ones. He was 75 years old.

For 30 years, Jim proudly served the ACFE from its beginning. Following a 16-year career at the Dallas Police Department, Jim relocated to Austin, Texas, in 1986, when he joined Wells & Associates, a forensic accounting practice. In 1988, he was named Program Director for the ACFE, overseeing all aspects of the newly founded organization’s training and education programs.

“Without Jim’s encouragement and total belief in the concept, the founding of the ACFE might not have ever happened,” Dr. Joseph T. Wells, CFE, CPA, ACFE Founder and Chairman, says. “He was vital to the organization you see today.”

Jim received the Donald R. Cressey Award in 2005 for lifetime achievement in the detection and deterrence of fraud. In 2006, he was named President of the ACFE, and in 2011, also took the role of CEO until his retirement in 2018. He was named one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting” by Accounting Today in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The ACFE extends our deepest condolences to Jim’s family and loved ones. We will continue to respect their privacy during this time.

We invite ACFE members and those who knew Jim to join us in remembering and honoring his life: https://connect.acfe.com/discussion/celebrating-the-life-of-jim-ratley-cfe

05/28/2025

Some wake-up humor…

05/28/2025

What degree does he hold? :)

05/23/2025

More taxes. The solution to climate change?

07/06/2024

One might consider this sequence of daily readings a bit odd. However, many Christian reformers exhibit the courage and non-conformity of the SAS which inspired Green Beret, Special Forcesand Navy Seals in the US military.

02/14/2024

So Greenland was green 1,000 years ago? Was that because of "human caused' climate change or a naturally occurring climate cycle?

New research published Tuesday says that because of global warming, Greenland’s ice sheet is melting fast – and being replaced by vegetation.

12/11/2023

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/richest-politicians-in-the-u-s/

Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, J.B. Pritzker. This infographic is a snapshot of the richest politicians in the U.S.

10/19/2022

Gone in 60 Seconds was a fiction movie. - $50,000 to a phony bank wire address was a real loss. Small biz CFO responded to a compromised email address delivering the fake wire instructions. Simply right clicking on the sender email address would have revealed the spoof.

09/10/2022

𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞.

Do you have cat watchers on your payroll? This kitten has TEETH. It’s an Iranian cyber attack with a warm, fuzzy picture! If your users are surfing the web on company networks, you could easily be ransomed.

https://www.darkreading.com/endpoint/charming-kitten-apt-wields-new-scraper-to-steal-email-inboxes

Want to avoid or (worse) recover from this attack?

Contact me: https://virtualcybersleuth.com/contact/

08/25/2022

Employers – An FBI Cyber Warning about Your Employees – Ransomware Pirates are gathering company log-ins from employee personal emails. Why? If hackers can’t pe*****te your company defenses, some are conducting what Sun Tzu terms an indirect attack. They use social media to identify your employees and then attack their personal email accounts. Those typically have less protection than your company systems. The pirates search for company log-in credentials in emails or in related unprotected text apps like Google Notes or Microsoft OneNote. Next step is logging into your company systems.
Want tips on how to protect your company/practice? https://virtualcybersleuth.com/546-2/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fbi-warns-of-residential-proxies-used-in-credential-stuffing-attacks/

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warns of a rising trend of cybercriminals using residential proxies to conduct large-scale credential stuffing attacks without being tracked, flagged, or blocked.