Hawthorne Press Tribune
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 60, No. 49 - December 6, 2018
Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............3
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................4
Classifieds............................3
Entertainment......................2
Food.......................................5
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals....................................6
Pets.....................................7,8
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Sunny
65˚/52˚
Saturday
Sunny
65˚/53˚
Sunday
Partly
Cloudy
65˚/53˚
The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne
Paying Respects to Officer Hirai
Hawthorne Police Department officers were among many from neighboring agencies who came out to pay their respects last week to Gardena Police Department Officer Toshio Hirai who succumbed to
injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash on Nov. 14. His police motorcycle was struck by a car at the intersection of Western and 238th Street. Photo Courtesy of Hawthorne PD.
Prosecutors Pivot from Election
Cyberattacks to Charity Scams
By Rob McCarthy
A team of security experts and local prosecutors
fended off a massive cyberattack last
month during the November election, the Los
Angeles County District Attorney revealed this
month. The DA’s office provided details on a
10-day operation that anticipated and stopped
the hackers, some of whom hijacked computer
systems and used them to hide their identities
from authorities.
The DA’s office assigned a team of cybercrimes
investigators to catch hackers in the days
leading up to the Nov. 6 voting. The security
team with the County Registrar-Recorder that
oversees national, state and local elections halted
more than 280,000 attempts to gain access
to the system on Election Day alone, according
to reports. Election officials and law enforcement
around the nation, including L.A. County,
were on high alert and monitoring their election
information systems against online attacks.
The operation reviewed more than 400,000
suspicious access attempts that were blocked
by network defense measures over one week,
including 281,339 attempts on Election Day.
While hackers regularly try to breach the
county’s computer networks, the methods they
used during last month’s elections were more
sophisticated and designed to get past normal
security checks. “The county’s network security
personnel are very effective at defending the
network and blocking malicious internet traffic,”
said Deputy District Attorney Donn Hoffman
of the Cyber Crime Division.
Dubbed Operation Election Overwatch, prosecutors
teamed with Internet security experts
at the county on a 10-day effort to detect and
prevent illegal attempts to access the county’s
computer networks. A five-member team of
cybercrimes prosecutors worked alongside
county security experts to identify the hackers
and build cases for prosecution, according to
the district attorney’s office.
The threat was considered so great that
federal intelligence gurus shared classified
briefings with elections officers, detailing
fears that Russian hackers would try to disrupt
another U.S. election. Senior District Attorney
Investigator Clint Dragoo said the heightened
concerns nationally about the integrity of election
systems prompted local authorities to put
more safeguards into place. “In the past, we
would respond if ISD security had something,”
Dragoo said. “We thought this year we would
take a little more of a proactive approach.”
The operation reviewed more than 400,000
suspicious access attempts that were blocked
by network defense measures over one week,
including 281,339 attempts on Election Day.
This was an expected uptick from the usual
traffic of mostly automated attacks.
The county’s digital security detail vigorously
monitors online traffic between county
networks and outside entities by using a variety
of measures to guard against hacking, denialof
service attacks and data theft, according to
Deputy DA Hoffman, one of the prosecutors
assigned to the operation.
The team intensified its review of suspicious
network activity and was able to
quickly investigate to determine the locations
and identities of the cyberattackers and other
suspicious activity on the network, officials
said. Investigators suspect that the hackers used
computer networks owned by unsuspecting third
parties to avoid detection, Hoffman said. The
DA’s office contacted and alerted them to the
potential compromise.
The DA’s office did not reveal whom it believes
was responsible for the massive cyberattack last
month, or whether any of the computer systems
used were located in Russia. The office said it
forwarded its findings of the investigation to
the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
Mere days after the election, wind-driven
wildfires burned close to 100,000 acres near
Malibu and Ventura County. Hundreds of homes
were destroyed or damaged, sending people
fleeing in the middle of the night. With the
flames out and the recovery effort underway
for the displaced residents of Thousand Oaks,
Agoura Hills and Malibu, there is a new threat
of bogus first responder charities.
Officials say to expect unsolicited phone
calls asking for donations to help the victims
of the Woolsey and Hill fires. Many of these
charities will use names that sound legitimate.
However, local prosecutors warn residents to
ask questions to avoid getting scammed.
Charity scams claim to represent organizations
that benefit police, firefighters or other public
safety personnel. But the dishonest ones don’t use
the funds the way they promised. “Others may
not be legitimate charities at all,” the DA cautions
and offers a few suggestions for not being duped.
Look into an organization before sending money.
Charities that disclose how they spend their
money have nothing to hide. A donation should
be tax-deductible, so ask. Never donate in cash
or gift cards. Do some research about charity
using a public-search tool at rct.doj.ca.gov.
Investigate a little before writing a check or
texting a donation to help first responders or
displaced residents of the Woolsey or Hill fires
-- or a holiday charity, officials recommend. “If
you’re looking for a way to help those in need, do
some research to ensure that your donation will
go to a reputable organization that will use the
money as promised,” says a charity watch message
posted by the Federal Trade Commission. •