How far will someone go to make money?

Quite far it appears. A grow-op south of Calgary was discovered after bears were found roaming the property.

Pot growers using bears as protection: police
The Canadian Press - August 18, 2010 9:28 AM ET
"[The officer] said it appears the alleged growers either liked having the animals around, or were using the bears to protect their grow operations."

During their search, the officers also stumbled across a roaming pot-bellied pig and a raccoon napping in one of the bedrooms.

"The pig was a little frantic at the sight of police, but the raccoon was pretty laid back about the bust and took it all in stride," said Moskaluk.

An illegal marijuana grow-operation can bring in hefty profits causing the operators to go to extensive measures to protect their crop. Common measures include:

• booby traps around the property meant to keep neighbours away or hurt police should they try to enter (For a humourous depiction of something that is typically quite serious, check out Bon Cop, Bad Cop),
• planting the crop on someone else's property so as to avoid suspicion; this includes rumors of some sports players tending plants close to the playing field and picking them up for sale once they are fully grown
• running other operations from the property simultaneously: anything from renting the property out to running a dog fighting ring on the property.

The best deterrence in your own neighbourhood is to know your neighbours. Common signs of a marijuana grow operation include:

• People home for short periods of time, often accessing the home via the garage
• Condensation forming on the inside of windows and/or a skunk-like odour emanating from the property
• Odd garbage (ie: predominantly soil pots, and fertilizer containers, electrical wire)
• Rental buildings often used and/or electrical bypass

The outfits in the adjacent photo are those worn by the inspectors and officers visiting the property after a bust. The levels of pathogens in the home are so high, that the every seem in their suits must be taped.

For further information on grow ops, how they affect rental properties and what to look for, check out the RCMP's information sheet.

Technorati Tags: Canada Law Enforcement

If only I had $1 for every time I've heard someone tell me the benefits of barefoot running over the last 2-3 years.

As with many forms of exercise, dieting and anything health related, fads come and while it's questionable whether people end up healthier because of the fads, someone surely makes money on them.

Enter: barefoot running. A sport that would bring us back to the early days of running.... The really early days!

Regardless of whether this sport boasts medical or clinical backing (for more info on that, check out Nature: Journal of Science or the slightly more palatable read Harvard Science), a new fad backed by accolades in a bestseller means:

• a surge of interest right at the beginning
• this interest may outpace legitimate supply leaving room for new suppliers
• uneducated buyers, ones that have just heard about this new fad and are not yet aware of the right resources for info and authentic products
• the possibility of longer term high sales.

Barefoot shoes try to outrace the black market
CNN Money - August 13, 2010: 5:25 AM ET
Suddenly, you run smack into one of the perils of innovation: you've created such a heavy demand that someone else is trying to take advantage of it. In other words, you've attracted counterfeiters. They're everywhere.

So what can a company do when they are new to the market and encounter counterfeiting?

Barefoot shoes try to outrace the black market
CNN Money - August 13, 2010: 5:25 AM ET
"It's like Whack-a-Mole," Shaw says. "It's become a really huge problem, taking a lot of our time and energy."

Here's what Vibram FiveFingers did:

• With more than 200 fake Vibram websites appearing online, Vibram solicited the help of Google to shut the sham sites down
• Vibram used the World Intellectual Property organization and lawyers to help take down the sham sites, often at a cost in excess of $2,500 per site
• The International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition can be used as a resource
• Vibram hired an investigator in China to sniff out factories making the counterfeit shoes
• But likely their single biggest success has been devoted fans blogging about the counterfeits, creating customer awareness.

Check out the full CNN Money article.

Technorati Tags: Counterfeit Fraud Prevention

When recent news came out that researchers had found a way to skirt around the https security protocols touted as the safest when doing your banking online with 168 bit encryption, it would seem media outlets hardly let the news hit the front page. Perhaps people think it’s unlikely to be a common issue?

Flashforward to Barnaby Jack’s performance at the Black Hat conference taking place this year in Las Vegas and a picture worth a thousand words; as the speaker hit enter on his laptop, bills flew out onto the floor beneath an ATM.

“With the right software, it’s actually pretty easy” said Jack before a pile of bills spilling out onto the floor.

Security researcher demonstrates ATM hacking
CNET - July 28, 2010 5:04 PM PDT
"I hope to change the way people look at devices that from the outside are seemingly impenetrable," said Jack, a New Zealand native who lives in the San Jose area. One vulnerability he demonstrated even allows a hacker to connect to the ATM through a telephone modem and, without knowing a password, instantly force it to disgorge its entire supply of cash.

Hacking into ATMs is not exactly a new idea: It was immortalized by a young John Connor in the "Terminator 2" movie, and techniques like "card skimming" and "card trapping" are well-known by police.

For full details on how the hack was performed (from a high level... Don't expect any black hat code here!) check out the full CNET article.

For more information on the Black Hat conference (an invaluable tool for keeping up with technical knowledge, code vulnerabilities and invaluable advanced fraud prevention insight) check out Black Hat.

Technorati Tags: Fraud Prevention Hacking