The personal touch has personal consequences

from here

The story about the attempted compromise of a Tesla factory is surprising to me because of how much trust the criminals placed in their would-be accomplice. Certainly there are other ways to get this done, even if the old thumb drive in the parking lot trick doesn't work. Allowing himself to be not only seen but to engage on a personal, even friendly basis is what did this crook in. This is why anonymity is so valuable in criminal enterprises.

It just works ... for the crooks

from here and here

I wonder if profiting from criminal enterprises has anything to do with Apple becoming the world's most prosperous company. Seems like it must have helped the bottom line at least a little, considering the numbers involved.

What Not To Wear: Getaway Vehicle Edition

from here and here (image source)

You might think it's the perfect license plate for a getaway vehicle because witnesses won't be able to read it properly, but the purpose of this license is so obvious you'll be drawing the attention of police even when you aren't trying to get away from the scene of a crime.

In fact, there's even an XKCD comic about an almost identical license plate. I don't know if art was imitating life or if life was imitating art in this particular case.

Backups are looking real good all of a sudden

from here

As a general rule it's not a good idea to pay the ransom that ransomware operators demand because you're funding their criminal enterprise. But sometimes perhaps there's no other way to get the data back, so what other option do you have? Well, it turns out that if the ransomware is attributed to a group that has been sanctioned by the Treasury Department then paying the ransom isn't just undesirable, it's potentially illegal (in theory you may be able to claim you were under duress, but you may still have to go to court to use that defense).

Arrested on catnip related charges

from here and here (image source)

It's the crate for you, crooked kitty.

Apparently this cat is more widely known as Goal Cat. I guess I've been watching too much Black Lives Matter protests. Funny how vastly different the same image can be interpreted by different people.

It's tricky with politicians

from here and here (source article)

So many of them actually are criminals that it's hard to argue that the technology is wrong, but the key here is that they were misidentified as criminals rather than misclassified as criminals. They are crooks, but not the crooks the tech thinks they are.