Prevent Hacking-Also an Exclusive High-End WPB Intracoastal R/E Offer
1-11-23
Opening Comments
Today’s theme, Prevent Hacking, was largely written by a reader who reached out to me. Additionally, a second reader contacted me who is also an expert in cyber security and contributed. I merely added some comments and edited it down to a more manageable level. My readers are critical in the success of the Rosen Report and contribute news stories, ideas and questions which improve the output. THANK YOU. I hope you find today’s piece helpful and it gets you into a safer place to reduce the likelihood of being hacked.
I wrote a piece one month ago entitled, “Mr. Irrelevant” regarding Brock Purdy, the last person picked in the 2022 NFL draft. He has gone 6-0 for the 49ers since taking over as QB due to the Garoppolo injury and had 13 TDs and 4 INTs in the 6 games. Pretty remarkable for being “irrelevant.” Check out some of the stats below. Let’s see how he handles the playoffs.
If you want to tear-up, be sure to read the last Quick Bite bullet about an 11-year-old autistic boy who was gifted a piano by a stranger. Love these stories.
No Podcast today, as I did not have time for to record one.
In the R/E section, I have a link to an insane property which is ready to be developed and can only be found in the Rosen Report, as it is not listed.
Pictures of the Day-My Son Turned 17
Prevent Hacking
Quick Bites
Markets
Morgan Stanley Sees Stocks -22%
Getting Easier to Hire?
Autistic 11-Year Old Piano Prodigy
Other Headlines
Crime Headlines
Real Estate
Exclusive Intracoastal Property in WPB, FL
Wells Fargo Pulling Back on Mortgage Lending
Musk On SFO Office Market
Housing Correction
Other R/E Headlines
Virus/Vaccine
Pictures of the Day-My Son Turned 17 Years Old
It is quite frankly nearly impossible to believe that my son, Jack, turned 17 on 1/10. I swear that it feels like yesterday when we brought him home from the hospital, and now he is 6’ tall. The kid will be leaving the house in a couple years. Happy Birthday Jack. This means your father is getting old. Son of a ….
Prevent Hacking
I received an email from a reader a few weeks ago, and he disagreed with a comment I made about Elon Musk. The result was numerous emails explaining my view, and we followed up with a phone call to discuss in detail. It turns out, Ray is a very experienced cyber safety/tech expert who was the Chief Technology Officer of a publicly traded company. Given I always want to learn and feel my readers can benefit, I had him write up some thoughts to protect us. He wrote up a total of 7 pages of ideas and I tried to edit it down for my readers, but there are a lot of safety measures to consider. I also uncovered another cyber-security expert reader, Tim, who sent over some of his thoughts which were incorporated.
This section is from Eric. Ten years ago, I was hacked, and they sent my JPM banker an email requesting $131k to be sent to a contractor. I was actually doing construction at the time. The request came from MY OWN EMAIL account. Thankfully, my banker, Chris, suspected something and called me preventing a large theft.
During the span of time it takes you to take a selfie and post it, at least one person will suffer from being electronically hacked. Security Magazine reports every 39 seconds someone is hacked. Cyber-crime is more profitable than the illegal drug trade.
We push the car remote lock button multiple times, just to be sure our car is locked. Yet, securing the keys to our bank accounts, financial records, health records, and everything else electronic is a relatively open door.
Cyber-attacks occur by bad actors taking advantage of our fast-pace usage of email, text, and mobile phone addiction. By accidentally and too quickly clicking on the wrong link or file attachment, we open the door to our electronic possessions. 85% of most hacks are from this avoidable human error.
With only a few easy, non-technology initiatives, there are methods to reduce our chances of being violated.
Phishing
We’ve all received countless junk/spam email messages. This term refers to electronic Phishing, which is a hacker luring in their next victim with various creative and clever email messages. Criminals pose as a legitimate entity to lure their target into providing secure information. Phishing continues to be the most common method used by cyber criminals – clicking on the wrong attachment or link can be disastrous.
According to a Verizon Data Breach Report, 30% of email phishing emails are opened by U.S. users. Even worse, at least 12% of these phishing emails contain links which are clicked on. A former hacker has 6 email “red flags” that you should watch for prior to opening them. I also found a CNBC article this week entitled, “Phishing attacks are increasing and getting more sophisticated. Here’s how to avoid them.”
Best practice:
Train your brain to verify the sending email address before doing anything.
Always click on the sender’s actual email address to verify the sender’s address is legitimate. In many instances, even the sending email name looks real, but clicking on the address shows another sender. 75% of attacks are phishing. Be careful.
SLOW down. Cyber criminals are counting on you being rushed and trusting everything sent to your email address and mistakenly clicking on an attachment or internet link (called hyperlinks). Never open or click until the sending address is verified. Clicking on an email link is one of the most dangerous things we do on a computer.
For bank relationships have email notifications on credit cards and transactions over a small threshold and require 2-step verification for wires and transfers out of your accounts. I also have email notifications for all credit card transactions over a relatively low threshold, so I can tell if someone is using my card.
Offer is too good to be true. Ignore attention-based emails and all “Act Now” messages – urgency is your enemy.
Ignore “Join my network” messages and suspicious calendar invites. A whopping 56% of phishing attacks originate on LinkedIn. I was shocked about this one and have an uncomfortable number of people trying to get me to sign up to their network.
Misspelled words or phrases. By now, you would think bad actors in foreign countries would use proper English, spellcheck, and decent grammar, but not always.
Website Address
Every time we type an email address (www.EricRosenReport.com) it is converted into an internet location and we often make mistakes typing. Your browser (hopefully using a non-tracking browser like Firefox or Brave) displays the internet location in the address bar: https://ericrosenreport.com/
When we mistakenly type the wrong email address, this mistake leads the user to an alternative website, which is likely owned by a cyber criminal, with intent to do harm. The industry term is typosquatting. You won’t know it is a fake website and make the mistake of entering your log in credentials. Here are a few examples (mistakes in red):
Website Desired Accidental Website
Being rushed, careless, or simply hitting the wrong key, leaving off a letter, interchanging letters, omitting a period, or adding an extra letter can be disastrous.
Password Usage
A Google/Harris poll revealed 52% of adults (age 16 to over 50) in the US reuse the same password. Easy for all of us to remember. However, once it is discovered, hackers will target all your accounts. Only 35% of us use a different password for all accounts.
Password managers provide a secure way of keeping track of all your passwords. If you are not using a password manager, refrain from using the same password for multiple websites. While somewhat annoying, if a hacker obtains your login credentials from one site, they can quickly use it on multiple sites. Hackers also utilize automated methods to cycle compromised password lists.
It is estimated there are over 300 billion passwords in use. This equates to an average of 38 passwords per person. How to keep track of all these passwords? Create a simple 10-digit password with a core foundation of 8 characters is the same:
Maybe a very old zip code from college or 1st apartment (5 digits) 54321
Select special Characters (3 digits) $&%
Select 2 letters of the account you are using (first letter (upper case) and last 2 letters (lower case) of the login company name – this is what changes for every login. Maybe the 1 st two letters of the company or the 1 st and last letters of the company:
o To log in Bank of America account, password would be $54321&%Ba
o To log in in Verizon account, password would be $54321&%Vn
o To log in Wells Fargo account, password would be $54321&%Wo
Create your own standard sequence as you like by placing your special characters and base 5 digits anywhere in your password foundation, the only 2 digits which change for every login is the upper- and lower-case letters you choose.
USB Power Stations
Running out of mobile phone battery on an airplane is disastrous for many people. Avoid every UBS power station.
USB power charging stations are easily hacked by cybercriminals. Called “juice
jacking” a USB power plug can easily download all your data and install malware without you having any idea. Never plug into a public USB port it’s like using a toothbrush you just found lying on the floor at the airport. You have
no idea where it’s been or the risks using. Data is easily exchanged with USB
connectors. Always plug into an AC outlet directly with your own USB
adapter which you can find on Amazon for $10. I won’t plug my phone into a rental car or charger without them.
Free Wi-Fi
While tempting, and so easy to us that free Bluetooth enabled Wi-Fi, avoid using unless you have, and enable, your Virtual Private Network (VPN). Avoid using public Wi-Fi without using a VPN and disable network auto-connect.
To protect myself, I use the “Hotspot” from my phone which is password protected and actually using it right now while I am sitting on a tarmac as I type.
Multi-Factor and Two-Factor Authentication
Use it – an extra layer of additional security protection. Most companies offer their customers 2-Factor Authentication (2FA). Usually the steps are simple: Login to your account and locate the area 2FA is enabled (Account Management, Security Setting/Center, Account Management, or Settings area), select a contact where and how you want to use 2FA (text, phone call, email, etc.). Test security code is sent to your selected method and then save your settings and 2FA is now enabled.
Gmail
Gmail is free, why would I leave it? Suppose the USPS offered you free mail,
would you allow them to open all your letters, read the contents, and then
provide you with ads related to the contents? This is Google’s model - providing
“free” email and grab all your private information while appearing to offer
“free” services.
Select a new email provider and leave Google. (ProtonMail (www.protonmail.com) or FastMail (www.fastmail.com) which has a privacy policy to your benefit, not theirs.
Quick Bites
Monday saw a rally stall when two Fed officials signaled rates could top 5%, which put a chill on the equity markets. Wednesday saw another day of the market rallying. The Dow closed up 269 points, or 0.80%, at 33,973. The S&P 500 gained 1.28% to end at 3,970. The Nasdaq led the indexes for another day, adding 1.76%, to close at 10,932. The market seems to be coming to the conclusion that Thursday’s CPI will show inflation cooling. Nice market commentary from Oppenheimer regarding Thursday’s CPI: The consensus expectation is for a yoy print of 6.5%. According to JPM’s Andrew Tyler, prints above 6.6% will be decidedly bearish, he projects S&P down 2.5%-3% in that scenario. His highest probability outcome, however, is for a print between 6.4%-6.6%, which, by his analysis, would result in a 1.5%-2% S&P rally. Hedgeye, however, is “nowcasting” a 6.7% print. Bond yields are falling with the 10-Year -8bps to 3.54% and the 2-year -3.8bps to 4.22%. The 2s/10s curve is -66bps, but up from 1-month ago when it was-83bps.
US equities face much sharper declines than many pessimists expect with the specter of recession likely to compound their biggest annual slump since the global financial crisis, according to Morgan Stanley strategists. “The consensus could be right directionally, but wrong in terms of magnitude,” Wilson said, warning that the benchmark could bottom around 3,000 points — about 22% below current levels. Deutsche Bank Group AG strategists led by Binky Chadha also expect US earnings to decline in 2023. Still, they said stocks could rally through the fourth-quarter reporting season, supported by a year-end selloff and low investor positioning. GS analyst Kostin also sees 2023 earnings estimates too high. I agree with Wilson from MS but feel more people are coming to this conclusion which gives me pause. Consensus rarely happens.
I wrote in June that I felt inflation was peaking, but one of the areas which remained hot was wages and we are starting to see that cool. The workweek fell to 34.3 from 34.4. Average hourly earnings grew by .3% m/o/m, one tenth less than expected and November was revised down by 2 tenths. I liked this WSJ article entitled, “Small Businesses Find Some Relief From Hiring Woes,” sent by a reader and the chart is going in the right direction. The Fed continues to have a Hawkish stance and some are suggesting over 5% terminal rate. I fear they raise too much as the data is cooling sharply. Small business remains concerned about the economy, as optimism fell 2.1 points to 89.8, but those small businesses who said prices were rising fell 8 points.
Great story about an 11-year-old autistic piano prodigy (Jude Kofie) who was gifted a $15k grand piano from a stranger (2-minute video). The boy found an old keyboard in the basement and started playing it with zero lessons. His father heard the boy and bought him a new keyboard and his story went viral. A stranger who tunes pianos for a living saw the story and bought the boy a piano to help support his playing. It is a touching story and would like to see more of these rather than the Kardashian family crap. The generous donation was massive for a man who does not earn a big living and was done out of love. Great story, and the kid can flat out play. The boy calls it a “miracle.”
Other Headlines
'Markets are going to get rocked' as Fed is likely to push rates higher, economist warns
This economist believes the terminal rate is at least 5.5% as the Fed could overreact. It is in the art of possible given the ineptitude of the Fed.
US consumers increased their borrowing by $28 billion in November
I have written about this topic extensively, and it is concerning. Savings are crashing as debt levels are rising sharply (credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, revolving lines of credit…). I believe the consumer is getting ready to roll over. Check out the savings chart below.
Rolls-Royce 2022 sales soar, CEO says no slowdown in spending by the rich
Record sales in 2022 at 6,021 cars (+8%) with an average price of $534k.
Goldman Sachs job cuts: up to 3,200 employees laid off this week
6.5% of the workforce, lower than original 8%. Lower bonuses, layoffs, market losses and rising interest rates suggests to me that NYC and surrounding areas should see a correction at the high end of the R/E markets.
NYC accused of allowing unqualified laborers to work on building gas lines
What could possibly go wrong here?
Twitter Files: Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb flagged tweets questioning COVID vaccine
So a Pfizer board member and former FDA commissioner had no conflicts here when trying to squash people who suggested natural immunity was better than the vaccine? More troubling news out of Twitter’s old regime.
House GOP to investigate Big Tech's communications with Biden admin
I hope it is broader than just Biden and includes the FBI, Fauci, Hunter Laptop, shadow banning and everything else. Free press is crucial.
Classified documents found at Biden think tank, DOJ and FBI reviewing the material
It was wrong when Trump did it, and it is wrong here. CNN is reporting materials related to Ukraine, Iran and the UK were found in Biden’s office. One report suggests some of the documents were “sensitive compartmented information,” which is ABOVE Top Secret.
Uncovered PRIOR to the mid-terms. Why months for the public to find out? When did Garland (US AG) know? How will this news impact his actions around Trump?
Politicians lie, but this guy is at another level. In my opinion, he needs to resign. I am not convinced anything he has said is true (education, work experience, charity work, Jewish heritage, sexual orientation, political views…..). Bad news and cannot possibly be effective given his damaged state.
Concerning article suggesting a journalist uncovered abuse at state facilities and was threatened and eventually fired for exposing it.
Safety agency considers ban on gas stoves amid health fears
Big deal for me. I only cook on gas stoves and use electric ovens. I sure hope this is not retroactive!
University of Michigan Spends More Than $18 Million on DEI Staff Salary, Benefits. (DEI=Diversity Equity Inclusion)
142 DEI staff with the top salary of $380k, and 17 staffers making over $200k. Nothing to see here folks. A September 2021 study found that a review of 65 universities in the Power Five athletic conferences had on average 45 diversity staff members on the payroll or 4 times the number of employees devoted to special needs students.
Quite an interesting article about cancer cell movement.
BMW describes it as the world’s first “color-changing” car, and is called the Vision Dee (Digital Emotional Experience). The Dee’s outer skin is a film made of electronic paper built by a start-up called E Ink. The coating segments contain millions of tiny micro-capsules with different color pigments that change shades when electricity is applied.
Crime Headlines
NYC Subway Crime Jumps 30%, Defying Surge in Police Patrols
Thousands of additional transit patrols won’t last, Adams says
NYPD is spending $20 million more per month on overtime costs
Overall crime in NYC is up 23.5% this year, but shootings and homicides are down, NYPD says
New York DA Offers Plea Bargain to Alleged Antisemitic Attacker
The man who said he ‘would do it again’ will go to jail for just six months if he pleads guilty under the deal.
NYC grocers' simple fix for serial shoplifters: Will lawmakers listen?
Will DA Bragg and Governor Hochul do anything about rampant shoplifting?
New Jersey art teacher overdoses on fentanyl in front of middle school students, police say
Real Estate
Today, I have an EXCLUSIVE piece of waterfront R/E in West Palm Beach from one of my most avid readers. It is a .75 acre intracoastal lot ready to be built by a high-end developer. This link has the renderings. The plans have all been approved, but as of today, it is a waterfront lot with a seawall being installed. The owners will consider selling the lot or completing the home to your specifications. I have been into multiple homes they have built, and they are very high quality with the last one selling for well over $50mm on Palm Beach Island. The architect, Workshop APD, is legit and picked beautiful finishes, but at this stage, you can make it your own. Assume 15-18 months to build once you approve the plans. I will connect any readers who have interest, but waterfront properties in Palm Beach don’t come cheap.
I thought this was a big headline, "Wells Fargo, once the No. 1 player in mortgages, is stepping back from the housing market.” Instead of its previous goal of reaching as many Americans as possible, the company will now offer home loans to existing bank and wealth management customers and borrowers in minority communities. What are the implications here? Will others follow suit?
I have made my views crystal clear on my concerns around commercial real estate and wrote a story entitled, “Concern Growing & the R/E Double Whammy is Not Helping,” in September of 2022. Elon Musk was at it this week with his comments on the commercial R/E market suggesting it would go below 2009 levels, at least in SFO. The San Fran market already has 25%+ vacancy rates in the office markets with some sub-markets over 40%. CBRE expects vacancies to rise, and many leases are coming due in the next 24 months which will result is sharply lower rent rolls as tenants renegotiate or leave. What lenders have the largest exposures? Will they take back the buildings and repurpose them? Given crime, tax rates, homelessness and WFH, SFO faces an uphill battle.
Housing prices in October 2022 were 38.1% higher than they were at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, based on Fortune’s figures. However, they started to fall in November 2022, with prices down 2.4% from the peak in June 2022, according to the Case-Schiller National Home Price Index. Experts are predicting another 10% to 15% drop by the second or third quarter of 2023, according to multiple sources. Uncertainty about the economy and a rise in unemployment could hasten the housing market downturn, creating the largest housing correction in the post-World War II era. The current correction stands as the second largest in the post-World War II economy, behind the housing market crash and mortgage crisis of 2008. To put it into perspective, even a 20% drop in housing prices through 2023 would not put home prices back at their pre-pandemic level.
Other R/E Headlines
Super-Prime Real Estate in New York and Florida Has Hit a Wall
A new report analyzing $10 million-plus sales in New York and South Florida showed signed contracts plummeting in 2022.
Miami’s coolest new residential projects aren’t name-branded
Mortgage refinance demand surges, as homeowners take advantage of lower interest rates
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($647,200 or less) decreased last week to 6.42% from 6.58%. The drop in rates sparked a 5% increase in applications to refinance a home loan.
Virus/Vaccine
Deaths have exploded, but cases are nearly flat and positivity rate is down a touch. Given the XBB 1.5 variant, I am concerned for the next couple months.
90% of people in China province Henan infected with COVID
The 3rd most populated province in China, Henan, has a 90% infection rate according to an official. The population of Henan is approximately 100mm. Hey, how did that zero COVID policy work out for you? Given the non-stop lies, deceit, origin, and misdirection, it is apropos that China is hit with such mass infection.