Clarence Thomas:

Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American jurist who serves as an associate member of the United States Supreme Court. President George H. W. Bush nominated him to succeed Thurgood Marshall, and he has served since 1991. Following Marshall, Thomas is the Court's second African American member, its longest-serving member since Anthony Kennedy's departure in 2018, and its oldest member since Stephen Breyer's retirement in 2022.

Thomas was born in the Georgia town of Pin Point. His grandpa reared him in a destitute Gullah hamlet near Savannah when his father abandoned the family. Growing up as a committed Catholic, Thomas aspired to be a priest in the Catholic Church but became dissatisfied with the church's weak efforts to combat prejudice.

He gave up his dream of becoming a priest to attend the College of the Holy Cross and, later, Yale Law School, where he was influenced by a number of conservative authors, most notably Thomas Sowell, who altered his viewpoint from progressive to traditional. He was appointed as an assistant attorney general in Missouri after graduation and eventually went into private practice there.

In 1979, he became a legislative assistant to US Senator John Danforth, and in 1981, he was appointed Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the US Department of Education. The following year, President Ronald Reagan named Thomas as Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Thomas was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President George H. W. Bush in 1990. He held that position for 19 months before taking Marshall's seat on the Supreme Court. The confirmation hearings for Thomas were acrimonious and contentious, centred on allegations that he had sexually harassed Anita Hill, a subordinate at the Department of Education and the EEOC.

Hill claimed that Thomas made many sexual and romantic advances towards her despite her repeated requests to cease. Thomas and his supporters disputed the accusation, claiming that Hill and her political followers made it up in order to obstruct the confirmation of a black conservative to the Supreme Court. Thomas was confirmed by the Senate on a vote of 52-48, the smallest margin in a century.

Since the death of Antonin Scalia, Thomas has been the Court's leading originalist, emphasising the original meaning of the Constitution in interpreting it. In contrast to Scalia, the only other steadfast originalist, he seeks a more conventionally liberal kind of originalism. Thomas was noted for his silence throughout most oral arguments until 2020, but he has subsequently been asking more questions of counsel.

Thomas is well-known for his majority opinions in Good News Club v. Milford Central School (determining religious speech freedom in relation to the First Amendment) and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen (affirming the individual right to bear arms outside the home), as well as his dissent in Gonzales v. Raich. (arguing that Congress may not criminalize the private cultivation of medical marijuana). He is usually regarded as the Court's most conservative justice.

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Researchers Discover a Vibrant Market for Phishing Kits on Telegram Channels. 

Image credits- The Hacker News

Researchers have discovered that threat actors are utilizing the messaging app to sell phishing kits and assist in setting up phishing campaigns, which is just more indication that Telegram is rapidly developing into a thriving hub for cybercrime.

According to a report this week by Kaspersky online content analyst Olga Svistunova, "phishers construct Telegram groups via which they teach their audience about phishing and amuse users with polls like, "What type of personal data do you prefer?"

Through GitHub, YouTube, and phishing kits created by the criminals themselves, the links to these Telegram channels are disseminated. According to the Russian cybersecurity company, approximately 2.5 million malicious URLs created with phishing kits were found in the last six months.

One of the notable services provided is the provision of Telegram bots to threat actors to automate the process of creating phishing pages and gathering user data.

Despite the fact that it is the scammer's job to send the false login pages to targets of interest, the credentials obtained in those sites are sent back via another Telegram bot.

Other bot businesses go it a step further by offering tools to construct phishing pages that look like real services and are then used to mislead potential victims under the guise of providing free likes on social media services.

"Scammer-operated Telegram channels occasionally post what appear to be exceptionally generous offers, such as zipped up sets of ready-to-use phishing kits targeting a large number of global and local brands," Svistunova explained.

In certain situations, phishers have been observed freely sharing users' personal information with other subscribers in the hopes of luring aspiring criminals, only to sell paid kits to those who seek to carry out further such attacks. The scammers also offer to teach people "how to phish for serious money."

Scammers use free offers to deceive cash-strapped and inexperienced criminals into utilizing their phishing kits, resulting in double theft, in which the stolen data is also transferred to the originator without their awareness.

Paid services, on the other hand, contain complex kits with appealing designs and capabilities such as anti-bot detection, URL encryption, and geoblocking that threat actors may use to commit more sophisticated social engineering operations. These pages range in price from $10 to $280.

Another paid category is the sale of personal data, with bank account credentials posted at varied rates depending on the balance. For example, a $49,000 balance account was shown for $700.

Furthermore, phishing services are advertised via Telegram on a subscription basis (i.e., phishing-as-a-service or PhaaS), with developers renting the kits for a monthly price in exchange for continuous updates.

A one-time password (OTP) bot that calls consumers and gets them to enter the two-factor authentication code on their phones to help bypass account security is also sold as a subscription.

It is relatively simple to set up these services. What is more difficult is gaining the customers' trust and loyalty. And other companies go out of their way to ensure that all information is encrypted so that it cannot be accessed by third parties, even themselves.

The findings follow an earlier January caution from Cofense, which found an 800% surge in the use of Telegram bots as exfiltration destinations for phished information.

"Wannabe phishers used to have to find their way onto the dark web, study the forums, and do other things to get started," Svistunova explained. "The barrier to joining the phisher community was lowered when malicious actors migrated to Telegram and now share insights and knowledge, often for free, directly in the popular messaging service."

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