#forensic accounting san antonio

[thebufkinlawfirm]

Best Forensic Accountant Near Me

The Bufkin Law Firm is a leading Dallas forensic accounting firm that offers forensic accounting and certified forensic accounting solutions to all businesses & individuals across all areas. Reach us today! https://bufkinlaw.wordpress.com/2022/02/04/hire-the-best/

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Picks and Shovels Chapter One (Part 4)

Picks and Shovels is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.

This month, I'm serializing the first chapter of my next novel, Picks and Shovels, a standalone Martin Hench novel that drops on Feb 17:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels

The book is up for presale on a Kickstarter that features the whole series as print books (with the option of personalized inscriptions), DRM-free ebooks, and a DRM-free audiobook read by Wil Wheaton:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/picks-and-shovels-marty-hench-at-the-dawn-of-enshittification

It's a story of how the first seeds of enshittification were planted in Silicon Valley, just as the first PCs were being born.

Here's part one:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/09/the-reverend-sirs/#fidelity-computing

Part two:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/10/smoke-filled-room-where-it-happens/#computing-freedom

Part three:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/11/socialism-for-the-rich/#a-lighter-shade-of-mauve

And now, onto part four!

The San Antonio girl—the daughter of a local real-estate broker—had no idea what floppy disks the president was talking about, so he showed her the catalog and she immediately called the rep in Colma. The receptionist was on the ball and passed the call on to Shlomo, who immediately grasped the catalog’s significance and approved an expensive Federal Express courier.

“Our general counsel advised us to seek an injunction and file a suit,” Bishop Clarke said.

“It would have been better to talk, of course,” the rabbi said. “Nobody wanted to drag those three little girls into court. They’re like family, even though they left.”

Up until then, they’d all been telling the same story, but something about what Rabbi Finkel said stopped its momentum. I’d been practicing my listening, trying to be like Lucille, listening with my eyes and my ears. The rabbi’s statement jolted the other two. Now we’re coming to the crux, I thought. This is the part where I come in.

“They were good at their jobs,” Bishop Clarke said, almost wistful.

“They surprised us,” Father Marek said.

“Perhaps we could find an accommodation,” the rabbi said. The three men looked at each other. How long had they been in business together, in each other’s pockets, maybe at each other’s throats? The story of interfaith harmony was such a juicy one, the stuff of magazine cover stories. Was it true, though?

“They just need convincing,” Bishop Clarke said. His smile flickered on and off. He must have had dental work. The standard-issue teeth just didn’t come that way: shining, white, perfect symmetry. On, off. Maybe he practiced it in front of a mirror.

Discovery is the part of a lawsuit where the parties can demand relevant documents from one another: memos, contracts, correspondence.

Tortious interference is the legal offense of stepping between two contracting parties in a way that induces one of them to violate their contractual obligations. Suing for tortious interference is the commercial version of a jilted wife confronting her erstwhile husband’s lover, as though his infidelity was her fault.

Fidelity’s lawyers—an outside firm with a reputation for aggression and a roster of blue-chip clients and high-profile cases, including IBM’s ongoing troubles with the Department of Justice over its alleged antitrust violations—had drawn up a complaint asserting that CF had induced Fidelity’s suppliers to violate their confidentiality and exclusivity agreements, while simultaneously inducing the company’s best customers to forgo their contractual obligations (and semireligious duty) to buy their supplies from Fidelity and its sales agents in their congregations.

These sweeping allegations gave Fidelity’s lawyers sweeping discovery powers: all documents and accounts related to CF’s manufacturing, promotion, and sales, right down to the printers who supplied their catalogs.

CF wasn’t powerless in the face of this onslaught. Their lawyers—a much cheaper and hungrier firm of lawyers, without the pedigree or track record of their opposing counsel—had secured the right to redact irrelevant, sensitive material from the documents they turned over, and, more crucially, they had convinced the judge to let them do something novel.

The bishop hoisted a banker’s box onto the table and set it down with a thud. He lifted the lid like a conjurer’s trick and brought out two thick binders of paperwork, bristling with dividers. “This is the hardcopy,” he said. “It’s almost nothing. Photocopies of handwritten memos, mostly.”

He reached back in and produced a mauve box of floppy disks, the five – and – a – quarter – inch kind that already seemed slightly quaint, compared to the small, rigid three – and – a – half – inch floppies that all the new computers were using. He produced a second box. A third. A fourth. A fifth. The pile grew.

“Ten boxes of floppy disks,” the bishop said. “No one had ever asked such a thing of our judge, but he said that two computer companies should be able to accept electronic submissions from one another. He said it was obvious that this was the future of discovery, and that we were the perfect litigants to start with, since our dispute was about their piracy of our formats and disks, so of course we’d have compatible systems.

“Somewhere in here is the evidence that they are going to fail in court, the evidence that will force them to come back to the table and negotiate, to talk, the way they should have in the first place. They’ve found some good ways of doing things, and we’re interested in that. We want to work with them, not ruin them. We could arrange a sale of their little company to Fidelity, on preferable terms, but with something in there to recognize their clever little inventions and innovations. They’d get something, rather than nothing.” The bishop spread his hands, patted the air. It’s only reasonable, his hands said.

“Better they get the money than the lawyers,” the rabbi said.

“Something is always better than nothing,” Father Marek said. “Even an idiot should be able to see that.” The other two shot him looks. He scowled at them.

“We need someone who can make sense of all this.” The bishop pointed at his precarious tower of floppy disks. “They thought that they’d overwhelm us with electronic records. That our lawyers were so conservative that they wouldn’t be able to sort through them. It’s true, they’re not set up for this. No one is, but someone could be. We think that for the right kind of person, someone who understands accounting and computers, these records will be easier to handle.”

There it was. They looked at me, three worried sets of eyes. This wasn’t how they normally operated. They were taking a risk. I wondered whose idea this was. Not Father Marek: he wanted vengeance. He’d be happy to smash CF, make an example of them. Rabbi Finkel? Perhaps. I could see that he was a thinker, someone who looked around corners. The bishop? He’d done most of the talking. But I got the impression he always did most of the talking: a Mormon bishop, after all, didn’t wear a dog collar or a beard and yarmulke. Mormon bishops are laypeople, after all. They look secular.

Check out my Kickstarter to pre-order copies of my next novel, Picks and Shovels!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/13/wanting-it-badly/#discovering-e-discovery

[crimeculturepodcast]

Watch if you’re looking for...

**This is not a full list! Message me with additions and I will keep it going. Some may repeat in different categories**

Indicated entries may contain some of the following (I am working on labeling all entries, let me know if you have a recommendation):

~ Gun violence

* Sexual violence

+ Hate Crimes (racial, religious, LGBTQ+)

; Suicide/self-harm

Case (or multiple) per episode crime drama:

Bones

Cold Case Files

Criminal Minds

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

CSI: Cyber

CSI: Miami

CSI: NY

Forensic Files

Law & Order  ~*+;

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Law & Order: LA ~*+;

Law & Order: Organized Crime ~

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit  ~*+;

Law & Order: Trial by Jury  ~*+

NCIS  ~*+;

NCIS: Hawaii

NCIS: Los Angeles

NCIS: New Orleans

The X-Files

Firsthand Accounts:

The Confession Tapes

Evil Lives Here

Fear Thy Neighbor

I Am A Killer

I Survived

Snapped

Unsolved Mysteries

Worst Roommate Ever

Drugs/Organized Crimes:

Better Call Saul ~

Breaking Bad ~

Cocaine ~

Cocaine Cowboys

Drugs Inc. ~

Drug Lords ~

Fear City: New York vs The Mafia ~

Heist

How To Fix A Drug Scandal

Icarus

Law & Order: Organized Crime ~

Legend

The Legend of Cocaine Island

Murder Mountain

Narcos ~

Operation Odessa

Ozark ~

Screwball

Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord

White Boy

Dramatization of a real event:

The Act

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: An American Crime Story

Chernobyl ;

A Crime to Remember

Dirty John

Foxcatcher

Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders ~

Lost Girls

Mindhunter

The OJ Simpson Trial: An American Crime Story

Orange is the New Black

Unbelievable

When They See Us

Documentaries (One Part):

Abducted in Plain Sight *

Amanda Knox

American Murder: The Family Next Door

American Tragedy

Athlete A

Audrie & Daisy *

Beware the Slenderman

Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell

Bowling for Columbine

The Bridge ;

The Cheshire Murders

Conviction

Cropsey

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father ;

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson +

Dream/Killer

The Fear of 13

Have You Seen Andy?

H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer

The House of Suh

I Don’t Like Mondays ~

Icarus

The Imposter

Interview With a Serial Killer

Kidnapped: Natascha Kampusch

Lessons From A School Shooting: Notes on Dunblane ~

Long Shot

Murder by the Coast

The Murder of Meredith Kercher

Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story

Nail bomber: Manhunt

No Place to Hide: The Rehtaeh Parsons Story

Our Father

Out Of Thin Air

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

The Phantom

Private Network: Who Killed Manuel Buendia?

ReMastered: Who Killed Jam Master Jay?

Roll Red Roll

Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four

Strong Island

The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo

Team Foxcatcher

Tell Me Who I Am *

There’s Something Wrong With Aunt Diane

Thin Blue Line

Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop

Unseen

Valentine Road

Voyeur

We Are Columbine ~

West of Memphis

Who Killed Garrett Phillips?

Who Took Johnny

Why Did You Kill Me?

The Witness

You Belong To Me: Sex, Race And Murder in The South

Docuseries (Multi-Parts):

Allen v. Farrow

Casting JonBenet

Captive

Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta?

The Case Against Adnan Syed

The Confession Killer

Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes

Crime Scene: Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel

The Devil Next Door

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell

Don’t Fuck With Cats: Hunting An Internet Killer

Eliza Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime

Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist

I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter ;

The Innocent Man

Inside The Real Narcos

Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich

The Keepers

The Killing Season

Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez

Killer Kids

Lorena

Making a Murderer

Memories of Murder: The Dennis Nilsen Tapes

The Menendez Murders

Murder Among the Mormons

Nevenka: Breaking the Silence

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer

Outcry

The People vs. OJ Simpson

A Perfect Crime

The Pharmacist

The Raincoat Killer: Chasing a Predator in Korea

The Ripper

Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice

The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness

Sophie: A Murder in West Cork

The Staircase

This Is a Robbery: The World's Greatest Art Heist

Tiger King

Trial 4

Trial By Media

The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez

Unabomber: In His Own Words

Under Suspicion: Uncovering the Wesphael Case

The Vow ~

Kidnapping/Disappearances

Abducted in Plain Sight

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell

Have You Seen Andy?

The Imposter

Kidnapped: Natascha Kampusch

Unseen

Who Took Johnny?

Based on a Serial Killer Movies:

10 Rillington Place

Badlands

Bernie

The Boston Strangler

Citizen X

Dahmer

The Deliberate Stranger

Eaten Alive

Ed Gein

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile

From Hell

Frozen Ground

Gacy

The Gray Man

Green River Killer

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer ~*

The Highwaymen

The Hunt for the BTK Killer

The Iceman

Karla

Killer: A Journal of Murder

Monster

My Friend Dahmer *

The Night Stalker ~*

Out of the Darkness

The Snowtown Murders

Speck

Summer of Sam

The Town That Dreaded Sundown

Who Killed Atlanta’s Children?

Wolf Creek

Zodiac

Cults:

Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator

Charlie Says

Children of God

Deprogrammed

Holy Hell

Jesus Camp

Jonestown: Paradise Lost

Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey

Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath

Source Family

The Family

The Vow

Waco

Wild Wild Country

Fraud:

Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Catch Me If You Can

Catfish

The Con

Dirty Money

Fyre Fraud

Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened

The Imposter

The Inventor: Out For Blood in Silicon Valley

Love Fraud

Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art

Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal

Quiz

Sour Grapes

Fictional Crime Thrillers:

American Crime

American Horror Story

Bates Motel

Better Call Saul ~

Big Little Lies

Black Mirror ~*;

Breaking Bad ~

Broadchurch

Dark

Dead to Me

Dexter

Hannibal

Harper’s Island ~;

How To Get Away With Murder

Killing Eve

Manhunt: Deadly Games

The Mentalist

Twin Peaks

The Stranger

Thirteen Reasons Why ~*+;

A Wilderness of Error

You

Paranormal Series:

Ancient Aliens

Buzzfeed Unsolved: Supernatural

Celebrity Ghost Stories

I Am Not Okay With This

Paranormal Survivor

So Weird

Stranger Things

The Twilight Zone

The X-Files

[bfnbear]

From the San Antonio Express-News; Texas. June 29, 1998.

Young actor clicks in third try

Deborah Martinez; Express-News Staff Writer

Chris Cardenas finally found his match in Jared Padalecki.

For the past two years, Cardenas has gone to the National Speech Tournament to compete in duet acting. Each time, the 1998 Madison High School graduate went with a different partner. Each time he placed in the top six.

When Cardenas, 17, teamed up with Padalecki, 15, and traveled to St. Louis last week, they were gunning for Cardenas' last shot at a national title.

The pair turned in a tear-jerking rendition of "Dominick and Eugene," a story about a man's paternal relationship with his mentally retarded brother, before a crowd of about 3,000.

The judges awarded them first place, giving the North East School District its first national championship in duo interpretation.

"It means a lot to finally win. It was my last chance," said Cardenas, who plans to go to Carnegie- Mellon University in the fall and major in theater. "It probably does mean more to me than it does to Jared because I have been trying for this the past three years."

The most harrowing moments for the pair came after their final performance. They had to sit through a three-hour award ceremony in which winners in their category were the last to be announced.

Although the partners were poised about their performance, the national title came as something of a surprise.

"I was pretty confident of the scene, and I was confident we would do well. But there's always that little question in the back of your mind," Padalecki said about the stiff competition with the 200- plus teams of duo interpreters.

With two years left in high school, Padalecki said his partnership with Cardenas will help him prepare for future competitions.

"I love the way Chris acts," Padalecki said. "I respect his work. Everything I see him do he's always really good in. All the rest of the audience is really enthralled by him.

"It was a good experience and an honor to be chosen to work with him."

Both actors attributed their success to their coach, Mike Harrison.

Cardenas said his and Padalecki's championship was an emotional climax to four years of hard work in which he sacrificed teen- age experiences such as his high school prom.

"When I look back at the last four years, it's more important than a prom," said Cardenas, who described as a relief the actual moment after he and Padalecki were announced champions.

"It was like a sigh of relief because you're like tense and you're holding your breath and all of a sudden you can exhale," Cardenas said. "After that, you just start freaking out."

Overall, North East had the best representation of any school district in the nation at the 67th annual tournament, sponsored by the National Forensic League, said Diana Schumacher, assistant to the district's fine arts director. The tournament included events ranging from debate to speech and drama.

For Churchill High School, Blake Walker took home a fourth place in humorous interpretation and Danny Lutman placed sixth in the original oratory category, while Aimee Gonzalez took 10th place in dramatic interpretation. High School student Justine Fisher was a triple winner, taking fourth place in extemporaneous speaking, eighth place in policy debate with partner Justin Freeman, and 10th place in the Phyllis Flory Barton Debate Speakers Awards category.

From the San Antonio Express-News; Texas. August 11, 1999.

Teen trades ranch work for appearance on TV

Jeanette McNamee; Express-News Staff Writer

When Hollywood came calling for aspiring actor Jared Padalecki, the Madison High School senior was working on a ranch in Blanco, far from the bright lights of a television or movie studio.

Padalecki, 17, of San Antonio was one of two teens selected nationwide as a winner of Seventeen Magazine and Fox-TV's "Claim to Fame Contest." Patricia Pendleton of Putnam, Conn., was the second winner.

A tall, Matt Damon look-alike, Padalecki won an expense-paid trip to Santa Monica, Calif., to appear as a presenter on the 1999 Teen Choice Awards. The show was taped Aug. 1 and will be aired locally 7-9 p.m. Thursday on KABB- TV.

Winning the contest meant a welcome break for Padalecki from a couple of hot weeks spent building fences, digging holes and cutting trees on a Blanco ranch owned by Spurs chairman Peter Holt.

Padalecki was one of approximately 20,000 teens nationwide who entered the contest by submitting a videotape of themselves to their local Planet Hollywood restaurant. Each contestant had 30 seconds to tell why he or she would be a good presenter. That was not a problem for Padalecki, who had been in numerous speech tournaments and taken drama classes since he was in the sixth grade.

He and his parents, Jerry and Sherri Padalecki, flew to California on July 29 for a five-day stay. Although the show was taped in Santa Monica, they stayed in Beverly Hills.

The Teen Choice Awards recognizes popular teen stars in film, television, music, sports and fashion as chosen by teens across the country who completed ballots found in Seventeen magazine's June and July issues or accessed the magazine's web site to vote for their favorites.

An estimated 1,000 teens were on hand for the filming of the show.

"I thought I was just going to sit backstage and maybe just go on stage a couple of times," Padalecki said. "But, actually, they let me help backstage. They also had me handing awards (which looked like surfboards) to presenters and even sometimes giving them to the people who won."

"They introduced me on the show, too. I don't know if they're going to keep it or if they're going to cut it."

He got to meet such celebrities as Freddie Prinze Jr., Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Brandy and Tara Lipinski.

But the most important part of the trip for the outgoing, personable Padalecki was the chance to meet agents such as Rich Beddingfield, manager/agent for Freddie Prinze Jr.

"We're going to keep in touch, and he (Beddingfield) is going to try and send me some audition material," a hopeful Padalecki said. "It's kind of tough living in San Antonio when the main acting cities, of course, are New York and L.A. So, instead of flying you back and forth, they send you the material and ask you to put yourself on tape and then you send the tape back to them, and they review it."

His parents are very supportive of his acting aspirations, he said.

"But it's a pretty tough business in acting, and they want me to have something as a backup. But if it all works out, they'd be ecstatic."

He's hopeful the audition tapes he sends to Beddingfield will lead to appearances in some TV shows or movies.

His mother said she and her husband share their son's enthusiasm for his acting goals.

"We think it's wonderful," she said. "He's been interested in it (acting) a long time. He was always a ham when he was little."

She is a teacher at [...] High School and Jerry Padalecki is an accountant with [...] Corp.

After graduating from Madison High School, Padalecki hopes to find acting roles in Los Angeles.

"I want to see how this next year in high school goes before deciding on college," he said. "If something happens during the year, like I get to be on a TV show or I send an audition tape and they like me and want to put me in a movie, then I'll go into acting. If I can do it, there's nothing else I want to do in the world."

If he finds acting jobs in L.A., he might attend the University of California at Los Angeles to major in theater or communications.

"Or, if this doesn't work out, I'll probably go to the University of Texas at Austin and major in engineering or computer science."

Padalecki has taken speech and drama classes for several years, first at Wood Middle School and then at Madison, where he's won awards in speech and drama competition.

He praises Madison's drama teacher, Mike Harrison.

"Mr. Harrison always told me I was real talented. But he also said it helps what you do in your lifetime. It helps the experiences you have and the way you see things," Padalecki said.

In addition to his success in drama and speech, he is an all-around 'A' student and a National Merit Scholar. He takes honors classes and is in the gifted and talented program at Madison. He also enjoys basketball and football.

His brother Jeff, 20, is a student at St. Mary's University, and his sister Megan, 14, is a freshman at Madison.

Forgot the link. Oops

[bloomsburgu]

Phi Beta Lambda showcases talent on national stage

Twelve members of Bloomsburg University’s Chapter of Phi Beta Lambda (PBL) and their advisor, Mark L. Usry, associate professor of business law, joined more than 1,000 other students at the PBL National Leadership Conference in San Antonio, Texas, the week of June 24 to 27.  

The twelve students qualified to attend the national conference by placing first or second in their competitive events at the Pennsylvania State Leadership Conference this past spring. Competitive events include analyzing cases in areas such as forensic accounting and entrepreneurship, sales competition, help desk and customer service, impromptu speaking, and competitive examinations.

Several members of the BU group captured awards at the conference. 

Marc Yeager earned first place in retail management and was second in management concepts. 

In information management, Zackary Bennett took second place.

While in marketing concepts Brittany Zipovsky also took second. 

Harry Emery earned second place in business decision making and was sixth with Austin Robbinson in business presentation. 

In cost accounting, Collin Schutjer was fourth. 

Finally, in business sustainability Krysta Hower and Mackenna Shively, took home eighth.

Also in attendance were Bryson Cromley, Allison Honabach, Rachel Miller and Joseph Kinek.

Phi Beta Lambda is an organization at the college level that continues the opportunities that Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) provides for high school students. The FBLA-PBL Mission is to bring business and education together in a positive working relationship through innovative leadership and career development programs.

[newstfionline]

Friday, February 12, 2021

House managers wrap up case against Trump (Washington Post) House managers on Thursday wrapped up their case against former president Donald Trump, imploring the Senate to convict him while warning that he could stoke violence again. Trump’s legal team is poised to respond on Friday, arguing that he should be acquitted. They are expected to use only one of two allotted days. A verdict could come as early as the weekend. The developments came on the third day of an impeachment trial in which Democrats have charged Trump with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the Jan. 6 violent takeover of the Capitol.

California Is Making Liberals Squirm (NYT) California is a remarkable place. It also has the highest poverty rate in the nation, when you factor in housing costs, and vies for the top spot in income inequality, too. The median price for a home in California is more than $700,000. As Bloomberg reported in 2019, the state has four of the nation’s five most expensive housing markets and a quarter of the nation’s homeless residents. In much of San Francisco, you can’t walk 20 feet without seeing a multicolored sign declaring that Black lives matter, kindness is everything and no human being is illegal. Those signs sit in yards zoned for single families, in communities that organize against efforts to add the new homes that would bring those values closer to reality. Poorer families—disproportionately nonwhite and immigrant—are pushed into long commutes, overcrowded housing and homelessness. Those inequalities have turned deadly during the pandemic. There is a danger—not just in California, but everywhere—that politics becomes an aesthetic rather than a program. It’s a danger on the right, where Donald Trump modeled a presidency that cared more about retweets than bills. But it’s also a danger on the left, where the symbols of progressivism are often preferred to the sacrifices and risks those ideals demand.

6 killed in 130-vehicle pileup on icy Texas interstate (AP) A massive crash involving more than 130 vehicles on an icy Texas interstate left six people dead and dozens injured Thursday amid a winter storm that dropped freezing rain, sleet and snow on parts of the U.S. At the scene of the crash on Interstate 35 near downtown Fort Worth, a tangle of semitrailers, cars and trucks had smashed into each other and had turned every which way, with some vehicles on top of others. The ice storm came as a polar vortex — swirling air that normally sits over the Earth’s poles — has moved near the U.S.-Canada border, resulting in colder weather farther south than usual, said Steve Goss, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

History of abuse for Mexican police unit in migrant massacre (AP) When state police in northern Mexico allegedly shot 19 people, including at least 14 Guatemalan migrants, to death in late January near the border with Texas, it was a tragedy that critics say authorities had been warned could come. In 2019, prosecutors charged that the same Tamaulipas state police unit, then operating under a different name, pulled eight people from their homes in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, posed them in clothing and vehicles to make them look like criminals, and shot them to death. Now, a dozen officers of the 150-member Special Operations Group, known by its Spanish initials as GOPES, have been ordered held for trial on charges they shot to death at least 14 Guatemalan migrants and two Mexicans on a rural road in the border township of Camargo. The bodies were then set afire and burned so badly that three other corpses are still awaiting identification. Authorities had ample warning of the problems in the unit, which was created last year from the remains of the special forces group accused of the 2019 killings and other atrocities. A federal legislator even filed a non-binding resolution in Mexico’s Congress in early January to protest beatings and robberies by the unit. “If back then they had done something, if any attention had been paid, perhaps today we would not be mourning the deaths of 19 people,” said Marco Antonio Mariño, vice president of the Tamaulipas Federation of Business Chambers.

Brazilian ballerina born without arms soars with her attitude (Reuters) When Vitória Bueno’s mother first dropped her off at ballet class, she worried about her five-year-old fitting in. Born without arms, Bueno’s dream of being a dancer seemed painfully unrealistic—especially in a small town in rural Brazil. But Bueno, now 16, focused on her assemblés, pirouettes and other technical challenges. She took up jazz and tap as well. Now a regular at the ballet academy in her hometown in the state of Minas Gerais, Bueno’s talent has made her a social media star and an inspiration to many. Watching her glide across the wooden stage, synchronized with her colleagues in a dazzle of green and white, it is easy to forget she dances without arms. More than just realizing a dream, the strength and flexibility gained through dance have proven crucial to Bueno, who does everything from brushing her teeth to picking items off the supermarket shelf with her feet. “There are things she can do with her feet that I can’t do with my hands,” said her stepfather, Jose Carlos Perreira. With over 150,000 Instagram followers, Bueno is glad to be a role model for others too. “We are more than our disabilities, so we have to chase our dreams,” she said, flashing a broad smile.

German children suffer from psychological issues in pandemic (AP) A new survey of children in Germany suggests that the stress and depravations of the coronavirus pandemic are taking a toll on their mental health, especially among those from underprivileged families, researchers said Wednesday. The study by the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf found about one in three German children are suffering from pandemic-related anxiety, depression or are exhibiting psychosomatic symptoms like headaches or stomach aches. Children and teenagers from poorer families and those with migrant roots are disproportionally affected, according to the study. “Children who were doing well before the pandemic and feel sheltered and comfortable within their families will get through this pandemic well,” said Ulrike Ravens-Sieberer, the head of the study and research director of the children’s psychiatric clinic at the university hospital.

Koo d’etat (Foreign Policy) Indian lawmakers are threatening to abandon Twitter in favor of Indian lookalike app Koo amid a dispute with the Silicon Valley company. The Indian government has ordered the removal of hundreds of Twitter accounts and posts in recent days over claims that users are spreading misinformation about ongoing farmer protests. On Wednesday, Twitter announced it would not comply with some takedown orders as it deemed them in contravention of Indian law. India’s IT ministry posted its displeasure with Twitter on rival app Koo, as a number of Indian leaders, including Trade Minister Piyush Goyal encouraged a Twitter exodus. The Koo app has seen a ten-fold increase in downloads as a result of the spat—a total of 3 million in the past two days.

They were accused of plotting to overthrow the Modi government. The evidence was planted, a new report says. (Washington Post) Key evidence against a group of Indian activists accused of plotting to overthrow the government was planted on a laptop seized by police, a new forensics report concludes, deepening doubts about a case viewed as a test of the rule of law under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. An attacker used malware to infiltrate a laptop belonging to one of the activists, Rona Wilson, before his arrest and deposited at least 10 incriminating letters on the computer, according to a report from Arsenal Consulting, a Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm that examined an electronic copy of the laptop at the request of Wilson’s lawyers. Many of the activists have been jailed for more than two years without trial under a stringent anti-terrorism law. Human rights groups and legal experts consider the case an attempt to suppress dissent in India, where government critics have faced intimidation, harassment and arrest during Modi’s tenure. Sudeep Pasbola, a lawyer representing Wilson, said the Arsenal report proved his client’s innocence and “destabilizes” the prosecution case against the activists. On Wednesday, Wilson’s lawyers included the report in a petition filed in the High Court of Bombay urging judges to dismiss the case against their client.

China to pull BBC News off the air, state broadcast regulator says (Washington Post) China’s broadcasting regulator has moved to pull BBC News off the air in the country over a “serious content violation,” the Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported Thursday. China’s National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) said in an announcement on its website that the broadcaster, which is partly funded by the British state but editorially independent, had “undermined China’s national interests and ethnic solidarity.” The announcement, which arrived with the Lunar New Year holiday in China, followed recent disputes between Chinese officials and BBC News. It also came just a week after Britain’s media regulator pulled the Chinese state-run television channel CGTN off British airwaves because of alleged errors in an application to transfer its license to another company. In December, BBC News produced a report that alleged the forced labor of ethnic minority Uighurs in China’s cotton industry in Xinjiang. Chinese state media bristled at the work, calling it “fake news” and accusing the BBC of political bias.

Racialized surveillance (Foreign Policy) Following numerous reports of Chinese firms, including Huawei, singling out Uighurs in facial recognition, a Los Angeles Times/IPVM investigation found that Dahua, the world’s second-largest security camera manufacturer, provides Chinese police with “real-time warning for Uighurs” and informs them of “Uighurs with hidden terrorist inclinations.” In many parts of China, being Uighur is now effectively criminalized, with the few remaining Uighur residents of cities outside Xinjiang reporting routine harassment by police. The arrival of Uighurs, even mothers with children, in a new city or town prompts the arrival of the police and actions ranging from warnings to stay in their hotel or apartment to deportation back to Xinjiang. Dahua is rolling out its race-based systems to other countries, which may have their own least favored minorities to target.

Biden Announces Myanmar Sanctions (Foreign Policy) U.S. President Joe Biden has announced U.S. sanctions against Myanmar’s military junta, ten days after the military seized absolute power and arrested members of the country’s democratically-elected leadership. Biden is to freeze $1 billion in Myanmar’s state assets held in U.S. banks, with further sanctions expected to follow against a “first round of targets” this week. But Myanmar’s generals have endured sanctions before—including recent ones over the ethnic cleansing of its Rohingya minority—and so whatever the international community can muster is unlikely to dislodge them.

Digital siege: Internet cuts become favored tool of regimes (AP) When army generals in Myanmar staged a coup last week, they briefly cut internet access in an apparent attempt to stymie protests. In Uganda, residents couldn’t use Facebook, Twitter and other social media for weeks after a recent election. And in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, the internet has been down for months amid a wider conflict. Around the world, shutting down the internet has become an increasingly popular tactic of repressive and authoritarian regimes and some illiberal democracies. Digital rights groups say governments use them to stifle dissent, silence opposition voices or cover up human rights abuses. Regimes often cut online access in response to protests or civil unrest, particularly around elections, as they try to keep their grip on power by restricting the flow of information, researchers say. Last year there were 93 major internet shutdowns in 21 countries, according to a report by Top10VPN, a U.K.-based digital privacy and security research group. The list doesn’t include places like China and North Korea, where the government tightly controls or restricts the internet.

Japan Olympics chief who said women talk too much will resign over remarks, reports say (Washington Post) The head of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee is set to resign, Japanese media reported on Thursday, after an uproar over sexist remarks he had made about women at a meeting last week. Mori, an 83-year-old former prime minister with a record of insensitive and sexist pronouncements, had tried to justify the lack of women at a senior level in the Japanese Olympic Committee by saying women talk too much at meetings and make them run on too long. The following day he apologized but showed no apparent remorse and said he had no intention of resigning. The comments provoked an unprecedented reaction in Japan, with more than 146,000 people signing an online petition calling on him to step down. Nearly 500 Olympic volunteers withdrew, and one poll found less than 7 percent of respondents thought Mori was qualified to continue in his role. The World Economic Forum ranks Japan 121st out of 153 countries in terms of gender parity, with the largest gender gap among advanced economies.

20 UN peacekeepers injured in an attack in central Mali (AP) An attack on a United Nations base in central Mali has injured at least 20 peacekeepers, the U.N. mission spokesman said Wednesday. The temporary U.N. base in Kerena, near Douentza, was the target of direct and indirect fire early Wednesday morning, Olivier Salgado said in a statement on Twitter. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group stage regular attacks on U.N. peacekeepers and soldiers.

Salesforce declares the 9-to-5 workday dead, will let some employees work remotely from now on (The Verge) Cloud computing company Salesforce is joining other Silicon Valley tech giants in announcing a substantial shift in how it allows its employees to work. In a blog post published Tuesday, the company says the “9-to-5 workday is dead” and that it will allow employees to choose one of three categories that dictate how often, if ever, they return to the office once it’s safe to do so. The company joins other tech firms like Facebook and Microsoft that have announced permanent work-from-home policies in response to the coronavirus pandemic. “As we enter a new year, we must continue to go forward with agility, creativity and a beginner’s mind—and that includes how we cultivate our culture. An immersive workspace is no longer limited to a desk in our Towers; the 9-to-5 workday is dead; and the employee experience is about more than ping-pong tables and snacks,” writes Brent Hyder, Salesforce’s chief people officer. “In our always-on, always-connected world, it no longer makes sense to expect employees to work an eight-hour shift and do their jobs successfully,” Hyder adds. “Whether you have a global team to manage across time zones, a project-based role that is busier or slower depending on the season, or simply have to balance personal and professional obligations throughout the day, workers need flexibility to be successful.”

At first cat lawyer was embarrassed. Then he realized we all could use a laugh. (Washington Post) As far as courtroom disclosures go, this one was unique: “I’m not a cat,” a Texas attorney claimed as his Zoom square displayed a fluffy white feline. At a routine civil forfeiture case hearing in Texas’ 394th Judicial District Court, Presidio County attorney Rod Ponton accidentally signed on with the cat filter, making the flummoxed attorney look like an adorable kitten. The 34-second clip of Ponton’s brief appearance as a cat immediately amused many and is becoming a viral hit. The prevalence of video chat platforms for court appearances has led to other unusual moments: A defendant in Sacramento appeared from a barber’s chair, a Florida burglary suspect tried to flirt his way out of trouble with a judge, and a lawyer in Peru was caught on camera naked after he stripped to have sex. But Tuesday’s video was the cat’s pajamas to many. Even Ponton, once he recovered from cat face and mortification, found humor in his proverbial 15 minutes of fame. “At first I was worried about it,” Ponton, 69, told The Washington Post on Tuesday, “but then I realized as it was going viral if the country could take a moment to laugh at my cat moment at my expense, I’ll take it. We’ve had a stressful year.”

[ridefm]

it’s great to see JERARDO SILVA & BENNETT KAIN, the newton & stratford residents ! thank you ash for your phenomenal apps, please submit your account(s) within twenty-four hours or your spot will be reopened. we can’t wait to see jed & ben in action ! rob raco & jay baruchel are now taken !

( ROB RACO. TWENTY-SEVEN. CIS MALE. HE/HIM. ) in texas, JERARDO SILVA is known to most as JED. they have been riding with the diablos for SIX YEARS. they originally from SAN ANTONIO and the RIDER is known to be very WITHDRAWN & TEMPERAMENTAL but the other club members will tell you they are PERCEPTIVE & KINDHEARTED. as the years go by, they’ve gained a lot of respect in the club and around town. they rarely ever drive a car but when they do ZOMBIE by THE CRANBERRIES is usually heard blasting. ( uncertain smiles, early morning cigarettes, & far too many accessories with emotional attachment. ) [ ash. 21+. cst. she/her. ]

( JAY BARUCHEL. THIRTY-FIVE. CIS MALE. HE/HIM. ) in texas, BENNETT KAIN is more commonly known as BEN. they’ve been living in stratford for THIRTY-FIVE YEARS and currently a FORENSIC SCIENTIST. some say they are SARDONIC & PESSIMISTIC but i’m more inclined to believe those that say they’re QUICK-WITTED & HUMOROUS. if you walk by their house, you can sometimes hear X GON’ GIVE IT TO YA by DMX playing from their window. ( notes as scattered as one’s brain, a pair of headphones for drowning out all the noise at inappropriate times, & a self-satisfied smirk. ) [ ash. 21+. cst. she/her. ]

[nox-lathiaen]

Information Security Analyst

Role : Information Security Analyst Location : San Antonio, TX Project Duration: Contract  6+ Months   Purpose of Job: Investigates, analyzes, and responds to suspicious behavior, attacks, and security breaches within the environments using a variety of cyber defense tools to identify and mitigate threats. Conducts log analysis and security event triage. Stays current with latest information security threats, exploits, trends, and intelligence.   Job Requirements:   Maintains awareness of the latest critical information security vulnerabilities, threats, and exploits. Assists in conducting routine security event triage and log analysis. Monitors networks, systems, and applications for routine to moderately complex suspicious behavior (includes Insider Threat), attacks, and security breaches. Assists in responding to cyber incidents, performing moderately complex analysis using security tools. Builds knowledge, understanding, and experience of disparate skills (e.g. networking, servers, coding, etc.) to figure out the malicious actor's tactics, techniques and procedures. Assists with conducting routine forensic analysis of comprised systems and determination of consequences. Under direct supervision, uses the discoveries from the incident response process to suggest basic improvements to existing detection capabilities and security controls. Documents findings of completed alerts. Assists with writing up findings on incidents.   Minimum Requirements:   Bachelor's Degree OR 4 additional years of related experience beyond the minimum required may be substituted in lieu of a degree. 2 or more years of related experience in Information Security and/or Information Technology to include accountability for moderately complex tasks and/or projects. Developing knowledge of function/discipline and demonstrated application of knowledge, skills and abilities towards work products. Developing level of business acumen in the areas of business operations, industry practices and emerging trends.   Preferred :   Experience in the technology and process of incident response, security event management, and log analysis Experience in disciplined blue team operations Experience researching emerging cyber threats to understand and present hacker methods and tactics, system vulnerabilities, and indicators of compromise Experience investigating, capturing, and analyzing events related to cyber incidents Experience planning and directing recovery activities including forensic event analysis, and malware evidence collection and reverse engineering Experience monitoring web proxy, email security, Web Application Firewall, Data Loss Prevention and Cloud Access Security Broker technology Experience in system administration applied to planning and researching and developing security policies, standards, and procedures across multiple platforms and applications Experience applying security principles, methodologies, and controls to new and emerging technology   Specific platform/software experience needed:   Phantom, ELK stack (Elastic, Logstash, Kibana), FireEye HX, Cylance Protect and Optics, Bluecoat ProxySG/MAA/CAS, Proofpoint, Powershell, VB Script (in order to analyze macro code), knowledge of the TCP/IP protocol suite       -- Reference : Information Security Analyst jobs Source: http://jobrealtime.com/jobs/technology/information-security-analyst_i3658

[thebufkinlawfirm]

5 Ways to Spot Fake Charities on the Internet

Donating to charities is one of the hallmarks of being a good corporate citizen. Unfortunately, some entities take advantage of this fact to cheat private firms out of money and in doing so divert money from worthwhile organizations that are truly in need of corporate and public support.

https://bufkinlaw.wordpress.com/2020/09/19/5-ways-to-spot-fake-charities-on-the-internet/

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Picks and Shovels Chapter One (Part 3)

Picks and Shovels is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.

This week, I'm serializing the first chapter of my next novel, Picks and Shovels, a standalone Martin Hench novel that drops on Feb 17:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels

The book is up for presale on a Kickstarter that features the whole series as print books (with the option of personalized inscriptions), DRM-free ebooks, and a DRM-free audiobook read by Wil Wheaton:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/picks-and-shovels-marty-hench-at-the-dawn-of-enshittification

It's a story of how the first seeds of enshittification were planted in Silicon Valley, just as the first PCs were being born.

Here's part one:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/09/the-reverend-sirs/#fidelity-computing

Part two:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/10/smoke-filled-room-where-it-happens/#computing-freedom

And now, onto part three!

The logo for the Computing Freedom was a stylized version of an inverted Fidelity Computing logo, colored magenta, just a few shades off of the mauve of the Fidelity family of products.

Their catalog was slimmer than Fidelity’s, omitting the computers themselves. Instead, it was filled with all the things that went with the computers: printers, ribbons, paper, floppy drives and disks, RAM and modems. Unlike the Fidelity catalog, the CF’s catalog had prices. They were perfectly reasonable prices, maybe even a little on the high side.

“Our computers, they’re a system,” Bishop Clarke said. “We provide everything, and guarantee that it will all work together. Our customers aren’t sophisticated, they’re not high-tech people. They’re people who organize their lives around their faith, not chasing a fad or obsessing over gadgets.”

“We hold their hands,” Rabbi Finkel said. “There’s always someone who’ll answer the phone and help them, whatever problem they’re having. It’s like a family. One of their computers breaks, we send them another one! That way, they can keep working. We know the system is important to them.”

“It’s not cheap,” Father Marek said. “That kind of customer service isn’t cheap.”

“We filed suit as soon as we found out,” Bishop Clarke said. “We didn’t want to.” He looked sad. “What choice did we have.” It wasn’t a question.

CF managed to fly under the radar for a couple of months. They started with sales calls, cold calls to their old contacts, their best customers, explaining that they had created a new business, one that could supply them with high-quality, interchangeable products for their Fidelity systems. The prices were much lower than Fidelity’s, often less than half.

“Sure they were less than half,” Father Marek said. “When you don’t have to pay a roomful of customer-service people, you don’t have to charge as much.”

The customers were happy, but then a San Antonio stake president was invited to dinner at the home of a local prominent businessman, the owner of a large printshop who relied so heavily on Fidelity systems to run his business that he kept one at home, in his study, with a modem that let him dial into the plant and look at the day’s production figures and examine the hour sheets and payroll figures.

The president noticed the odd-colored box of fanfold printer paper behind the congregant’s desk, feeding a continuous river of paper into the printer’s sprockets. He asked after the odd packaging and the parishioner gave him a catalog (CF included a spare catalog with every order, along with a handwritten note on quarter-sized stationery thanking the customer for his business).

The president assumed that this was some kind of new division of Fidelity, and he was impressed with the prices and selection in the catalog. Naturally, when he needed a new box of floppy disks, he asked one of the girls in his congregation for a box of the low-cost items—

“Why would he ask a girl in his congregation? Didn’t he have a Fidelity sales rep?” I’d filled much of my little steno pad with notes by this point. It was quite a story but I wasn’t quite sure where I fit in with it.

Bishop Clarke started to answer, but Father Marek silenced him by clearing his throat in a loud and pointed way. The priest stared at me for a long time, seeming to weigh me and find me wanting. I can’t say I liked him, but he fascinated me. He had such a small bag of tricks, those glares and noises, but he was a virtuoso with them, like a diner cook who can only make a half dozen dishes but prepares them with balletic grace.

“Mr. Hench,” he said. He let the words hang in the air. “Mr. Hench,” he said again. I knew it was a trick but he performed it so well. I felt a zing of purely irrational, utterly involuntary anxiety. “We don’t have a traditional sales force. The sales groups are small, and their primary role is Empowerment.” He leaned so heavily on the word that I heard the capital letter.

“Our sales groups travel around, they meet people in each place who know their communities, people who have the knack for technology, who need a little side business to help them make ends meet. The sales groups train these people, teach them how to spot people who could use our systems, how to explain the benefits to them. They use their personal connections, the mutual trust, to put our machines where they can do the most good.”

Bishop Clarke could see I wasn’t quite following. “It’s like the Avon Lady. You know, ��ding-dong Avon calling’? Those girls are talking to their neighbors, helping them find the right products. Their friends get the best products for their needs, the girls get a commission, and everyone is happy.”

I got it then. Fidelity was a pyramid scheme. Well, that was a waste of time. I almost said so, but then I held my tongue. I didn’t want to get into an argument with these men, I just wanted to leave.

“We’re not a pyramid scheme,” Rabbi Finkel said. Had it shown on my face? Maybe rabbis got a lot of practice reading people, hearing the unsaid words. “We follow the rules. The Federal Trade Commission set the rules in 1979 and we’ve always followed them. We are a community-oriented business, serving faith groups, and we want to give back to them. That’s why we pay commissions to local people. It’s our way of putting some of our profits into the communities that depend on us.”

“That’s so well said,” Bishop Clarke said. “So well said. Perfect, in fact.”

“Perfect,” Father Marek said, with a scowl that made it clear he wasn’t happy to have been interrupted.

Check out my Kickstarter to pre-order copies of my next novel, Picks and Shovels!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/11/socialism-for-the-rich/#a-lighter-shade-of-mauve

[robertflehman]

Information Security Analyst

Role : Information Security Analyst Location : San Antonio, TX Project Duration: Contract  6+ Months   Purpose of Job: Investigates, analyzes, and responds to suspicious behavior, attacks, and security breaches within the environments using a variety of cyber defense tools to identify and mitigate threats. Conducts log analysis and security event triage. Stays current with latest information security threats, exploits, trends, and intelligence.   Job Requirements:   Maintains awareness of the latest critical information security vulnerabilities, threats, and exploits. Assists in conducting routine security event triage and log analysis. Monitors networks, systems, and applications for routine to moderately complex suspicious behavior (includes Insider Threat), attacks, and security breaches. Assists in responding to cyber incidents, performing moderately complex analysis using security tools. Builds knowledge, understanding, and experience of disparate skills (e.g. networking, servers, coding, etc.) to figure out the malicious actor's tactics, techniques and procedures. Assists with conducting routine forensic analysis of comprised systems and determination of consequences. Under direct supervision, uses the discoveries from the incident response process to suggest basic improvements to existing detection capabilities and security controls. Documents findings of completed alerts. Assists with writing up findings on incidents.   Minimum Requirements:   Bachelor's Degree OR 4 additional years of related experience beyond the minimum required may be substituted in lieu of a degree. 2 or more years of related experience in Information Security and/or Information Technology to include accountability for moderately complex tasks and/or projects. Developing knowledge of function/discipline and demonstrated application of knowledge, skills and abilities towards work products. Developing level of business acumen in the areas of business operations, industry practices and emerging trends.   Preferred :   Experience in the technology and process of incident response, security event management, and log analysis Experience in disciplined blue team operations Experience researching emerging cyber threats to understand and present hacker methods and tactics, system vulnerabilities, and indicators of compromise Experience investigating, capturing, and analyzing events related to cyber incidents Experience planning and directing recovery activities including forensic event analysis, and malware evidence collection and reverse engineering Experience monitoring web proxy, email security, Web Application Firewall, Data Loss Prevention and Cloud Access Security Broker technology Experience in system administration applied to planning and researching and developing security policies, standards, and procedures across multiple platforms and applications Experience applying security principles, methodologies, and controls to new and emerging technology   Specific platform/software experience needed:   Phantom, ELK stack (Elastic, Logstash, Kibana), FireEye HX, Cylance Protect and Optics, Bluecoat ProxySG/MAA/CAS, Proofpoint, Powershell, VB Script (in order to analyze macro code), knowledge of the TCP/IP protocol suite       -- Reference : Information Security Analyst jobs from Latest listings added - JobRealTime http://jobrealtime.com/jobs/technology/information-security-analyst_i3658

[shwee-sawyer]

Information Security Analyst

Role : Information Security Analyst Location : San Antonio, TX Project Duration: Contract  6+ Months   Purpose of Job: Investigates, analyzes, and responds to suspicious behavior, attacks, and security breaches within the environments using a variety of cyber defense tools to identify and mitigate threats. Conducts log analysis and security event triage. Stays current with latest information security threats, exploits, trends, and intelligence.   Job Requirements:   Maintains awareness of the latest critical information security vulnerabilities, threats, and exploits. Assists in conducting routine security event triage and log analysis. Monitors networks, systems, and applications for routine to moderately complex suspicious behavior (includes Insider Threat), attacks, and security breaches. Assists in responding to cyber incidents, performing moderately complex analysis using security tools. Builds knowledge, understanding, and experience of disparate skills (e.g. networking, servers, coding, etc.) to figure out the malicious actor's tactics, techniques and procedures. Assists with conducting routine forensic analysis of comprised systems and determination of consequences. Under direct supervision, uses the discoveries from the incident response process to suggest basic improvements to existing detection capabilities and security controls. Documents findings of completed alerts. Assists with writing up findings on incidents.   Minimum Requirements:   Bachelor's Degree OR 4 additional years of related experience beyond the minimum required may be substituted in lieu of a degree. 2 or more years of related experience in Information Security and/or Information Technology to include accountability for moderately complex tasks and/or projects. Developing knowledge of function/discipline and demonstrated application of knowledge, skills and abilities towards work products. Developing level of business acumen in the areas of business operations, industry practices and emerging trends.   Preferred :   Experience in the technology and process of incident response, security event management, and log analysis Experience in disciplined blue team operations Experience researching emerging cyber threats to understand and present hacker methods and tactics, system vulnerabilities, and indicators of compromise Experience investigating, capturing, and analyzing events related to cyber incidents Experience planning and directing recovery activities including forensic event analysis, and malware evidence collection and reverse engineering Experience monitoring web proxy, email security, Web Application Firewall, Data Loss Prevention and Cloud Access Security Broker technology Experience in system administration applied to planning and researching and developing security policies, standards, and procedures across multiple platforms and applications Experience applying security principles, methodologies, and controls to new and emerging technology   Specific platform/software experience needed:   Phantom, ELK stack (Elastic, Logstash, Kibana), FireEye HX, Cylance Protect and Optics, Bluecoat ProxySG/MAA/CAS, Proofpoint, Powershell, VB Script (in order to analyze macro code), knowledge of the TCP/IP protocol suite       -- Reference : Information Security Analyst jobs Source: http://cvwing.com/jobs/technology/information-security-analyst_i4709

[qoholicjobs]

Information Security Analyst

Role : Information Security Analyst Location : San Antonio, TX Project Duration: Contract  6+ Months   Purpose of Job: Investigates, analyzes, and responds to suspicious behavior, attacks, and security breaches within the environments using a variety of cyber defense tools to identify and mitigate threats. Conducts log analysis and security event triage. Stays current with latest information security threats, exploits, trends, and intelligence.   Job Requirements:   Maintains awareness of the latest critical information security vulnerabilities, threats, and exploits. Assists in conducting routine security event triage and log analysis. Monitors networks, systems, and applications for routine to moderately complex suspicious behavior (includes Insider Threat), attacks, and security breaches. Assists in responding to cyber incidents, performing moderately complex analysis using security tools. Builds knowledge, understanding, and experience of disparate skills (e.g. networking, servers, coding, etc.) to figure out the malicious actor's tactics, techniques and procedures. Assists with conducting routine forensic analysis of comprised systems and determination of consequences. Under direct supervision, uses the discoveries from the incident response process to suggest basic improvements to existing detection capabilities and security controls. Documents findings of completed alerts. Assists with writing up findings on incidents.   Minimum Requirements:   Bachelor's Degree OR 4 additional years of related experience beyond the minimum required may be substituted in lieu of a degree. 2 or more years of related experience in Information Security and/or Information Technology to include accountability for moderately complex tasks and/or projects. Developing knowledge of function/discipline and demonstrated application of knowledge, skills and abilities towards work products. Developing level of business acumen in the areas of business operations, industry practices and emerging trends.   Preferred :   Experience in the technology and process of incident response, security event management, and log analysis Experience in disciplined blue team operations Experience researching emerging cyber threats to understand and present hacker methods and tactics, system vulnerabilities, and indicators of compromise Experience investigating, capturing, and analyzing events related to cyber incidents Experience planning and directing recovery activities including forensic event analysis, and malware evidence collection and reverse engineering Experience monitoring web proxy, email security, Web Application Firewall, Data Loss Prevention and Cloud Access Security Broker technology Experience in system administration applied to planning and researching and developing security policies, standards, and procedures across multiple platforms and applications Experience applying security principles, methodologies, and controls to new and emerging technology   Specific platform/software experience needed:   Phantom, ELK stack (Elastic, Logstash, Kibana), FireEye HX, Cylance Protect and Optics, Bluecoat ProxySG/MAA/CAS, Proofpoint, Powershell, VB Script (in order to analyze macro code), knowledge of the TCP/IP protocol suite       -- Reference : Information Security Analyst jobs source http://www.qoholic.com/jobs/technology/information-security-analyst_i5257

[jobrealtimeco]

Information Security Analyst

Role : Information Security Analyst Location : San Antonio, TX Project Duration: Contract  6+ Months   Purpose of Job: Investigates, analyzes, and responds to suspicious behavior, attacks, and security breaches within the environments using a variety of cyber defense tools to identify and mitigate threats. Conducts log analysis and security event triage. Stays current with latest information security threats, exploits, trends, and intelligence.   Job Requirements:   Maintains awareness of the latest critical information security vulnerabilities, threats, and exploits. Assists in conducting routine security event triage and log analysis. Monitors networks, systems, and applications for routine to moderately complex suspicious behavior (includes Insider Threat), attacks, and security breaches. Assists in responding to cyber incidents, performing moderately complex analysis using security tools. Builds knowledge, understanding, and experience of disparate skills (e.g. networking, servers, coding, etc.) to figure out the malicious actor's tactics, techniques and procedures. Assists with conducting routine forensic analysis of comprised systems and determination of consequences. Under direct supervision, uses the discoveries from the incident response process to suggest basic improvements to existing detection capabilities and security controls. Documents findings of completed alerts. Assists with writing up findings on incidents.   Minimum Requirements:   Bachelor's Degree OR 4 additional years of related experience beyond the minimum required may be substituted in lieu of a degree. 2 or more years of related experience in Information Security and/or Information Technology to include accountability for moderately complex tasks and/or projects. Developing knowledge of function/discipline and demonstrated application of knowledge, skills and abilities towards work products. Developing level of business acumen in the areas of business operations, industry practices and emerging trends.   Preferred :   Experience in the technology and process of incident response, security event management, and log analysis Experience in disciplined blue team operations Experience researching emerging cyber threats to understand and present hacker methods and tactics, system vulnerabilities, and indicators of compromise Experience investigating, capturing, and analyzing events related to cyber incidents Experience planning and directing recovery activities including forensic event analysis, and malware evidence collection and reverse engineering Experience monitoring web proxy, email security, Web Application Firewall, Data Loss Prevention and Cloud Access Security Broker technology Experience in system administration applied to planning and researching and developing security policies, standards, and procedures across multiple platforms and applications Experience applying security principles, methodologies, and controls to new and emerging technology   Specific platform/software experience needed:   Phantom, ELK stack (Elastic, Logstash, Kibana), FireEye HX, Cylance Protect and Optics, Bluecoat ProxySG/MAA/CAS, Proofpoint, Powershell, VB Script (in order to analyze macro code), knowledge of the TCP/IP protocol suite       -- Reference : Information Security Analyst jobs source http://jobrealtime.com/jobs/technology/information-security-analyst_i3658

[jobsaggregationco]

Information Security Analyst

Role : Information Security Analyst Location : San Antonio, TX Project Duration: Contract  6+ Months   Purpose of Job: Investigates, analyzes, and responds to suspicious behavior, attacks, and security breaches within the environments using a variety of cyber defense tools to identify and mitigate threats. Conducts log analysis and security event triage. Stays current with latest information security threats, exploits, trends, and intelligence.   Job Requirements:   Maintains awareness of the latest critical information security vulnerabilities, threats, and exploits. Assists in conducting routine security event triage and log analysis. Monitors networks, systems, and applications for routine to moderately complex suspicious behavior (includes Insider Threat), attacks, and security breaches. Assists in responding to cyber incidents, performing moderately complex analysis using security tools. Builds knowledge, understanding, and experience of disparate skills (e.g. networking, servers, coding, etc.) to figure out the malicious actor's tactics, techniques and procedures. Assists with conducting routine forensic analysis of comprised systems and determination of consequences. Under direct supervision, uses the discoveries from the incident response process to suggest basic improvements to existing detection capabilities and security controls. Documents findings of completed alerts. Assists with writing up findings on incidents.   Minimum Requirements:   Bachelor's Degree OR 4 additional years of related experience beyond the minimum required may be substituted in lieu of a degree. 2 or more years of related experience in Information Security and/or Information Technology to include accountability for moderately complex tasks and/or projects. Developing knowledge of function/discipline and demonstrated application of knowledge, skills and abilities towards work products. Developing level of business acumen in the areas of business operations, industry practices and emerging trends.   Preferred :   Experience in the technology and process of incident response, security event management, and log analysis Experience in disciplined blue team operations Experience researching emerging cyber threats to understand and present hacker methods and tactics, system vulnerabilities, and indicators of compromise Experience investigating, capturing, and analyzing events related to cyber incidents Experience planning and directing recovery activities including forensic event analysis, and malware evidence collection and reverse engineering Experience monitoring web proxy, email security, Web Application Firewall, Data Loss Prevention and Cloud Access Security Broker technology Experience in system administration applied to planning and researching and developing security policies, standards, and procedures across multiple platforms and applications Experience applying security principles, methodologies, and controls to new and emerging technology   Specific platform/software experience needed:   Phantom, ELK stack (Elastic, Logstash, Kibana), FireEye HX, Cylance Protect and Optics, Bluecoat ProxySG/MAA/CAS, Proofpoint, Powershell, VB Script (in order to analyze macro code), knowledge of the TCP/IP protocol suite       -- Reference : Information Security Analyst jobs source http://jobsaggregation.com/jobs/technology/information-security-analyst_i3658

[jobsaggregationcom]

Information Security Analyst

Role : Information Security Analyst Location : San Antonio, TX Project Duration: Contract  6+ Months   Purpose of Job: Investigates, analyzes, and responds to suspicious behavior, attacks, and security breaches within the environments using a variety of cyber defense tools to identify and mitigate threats. Conducts log analysis and security event triage. Stays current with latest information security threats, exploits, trends, and intelligence.   Job Requirements:   Maintains awareness of the latest critical information security vulnerabilities, threats, and exploits. Assists in conducting routine security event triage and log analysis. Monitors networks, systems, and applications for routine to moderately complex suspicious behavior (includes Insider Threat), attacks, and security breaches. Assists in responding to cyber incidents, performing moderately complex analysis using security tools. Builds knowledge, understanding, and experience of disparate skills (e.g. networking, servers, coding, etc.) to figure out the malicious actor's tactics, techniques and procedures. Assists with conducting routine forensic analysis of comprised systems and determination of consequences. Under direct supervision, uses the discoveries from the incident response process to suggest basic improvements to existing detection capabilities and security controls. Documents findings of completed alerts. Assists with writing up findings on incidents.   Minimum Requirements:   Bachelor's Degree OR 4 additional years of related experience beyond the minimum required may be substituted in lieu of a degree. 2 or more years of related experience in Information Security and/or Information Technology to include accountability for moderately complex tasks and/or projects. Developing knowledge of function/discipline and demonstrated application of knowledge, skills and abilities towards work products. Developing level of business acumen in the areas of business operations, industry practices and emerging trends.   Preferred :   Experience in the technology and process of incident response, security event management, and log analysis Experience in disciplined blue team operations Experience researching emerging cyber threats to understand and present hacker methods and tactics, system vulnerabilities, and indicators of compromise Experience investigating, capturing, and analyzing events related to cyber incidents Experience planning and directing recovery activities including forensic event analysis, and malware evidence collection and reverse engineering Experience monitoring web proxy, email security, Web Application Firewall, Data Loss Prevention and Cloud Access Security Broker technology Experience in system administration applied to planning and researching and developing security policies, standards, and procedures across multiple platforms and applications Experience applying security principles, methodologies, and controls to new and emerging technology   Specific platform/software experience needed:   Phantom, ELK stack (Elastic, Logstash, Kibana), FireEye HX, Cylance Protect and Optics, Bluecoat ProxySG/MAA/CAS, Proofpoint, Powershell, VB Script (in order to analyze macro code), knowledge of the TCP/IP protocol suite       -- Reference : Information Security Analyst jobs source http://jobsaggregation.com/jobs/technology/information-security-analyst_i3658