Reposted from KOAT7 ABC

Investigators say a night of drinking and other bad decisions by a security guard led to a devastating fire last month at the Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque.

Investigators say security guard Matthew Luxon not only left his post to go drinking with friends, but he brought them back to work with him, and that's when things really got out of hand.

Investigators say Luxon and two friends were shooting a gun from the balcony.

Next, they say Luxon and one of the friends, Lyle Thompson, rolled makeshift joints from plants on the balcony and smoked them in the maintenance room.

But they started coughing.

“During that coughing episode, the cigarettes fell out of their hands, igniting paper, which ignited the room on fire,” Mark Torres, with the Office of Superintendent of Insurance, said.

Crews say the fire triggered the sprinklers and prompted the alarm-monitoring company to call the center.

That's when investigators say the security guard made another mistake.

“He waived them off or told them that fire would not be needed at that time and that the system was under maintenance,” Torres said.

Crews say the guard then left without reporting it, meaning firefighters weren't actually called until security noticed the damage when they changed shifts hours later.

Arson investigators say they were able to narrow down the possibilities pretty quickly.

“There was no break-in, there was no smashed windows, so somebody inside the building had to know someone else was in the building,” Jimmy Vigil, with the New Mexico Fire Marshall's Office, said.

Investigators say they tracked down Luxon and he admitted to the whole thing. 

Both he and Thompson are charged with negligent arson and evidence tampering.

Luxon is also charged with conspiracy.

Investigators say the third friend was not charged because she was not in the room when the fire started.

Meanwhile, adjusters are working to determine how much damage was caused.

“We're looking at roughly a half a million, but there are several articles that still need to be scoped,” property casualty bureau chief Rod Crawley said.

Adjusters believe any damage done to the artwork is minimal, but they expect portions of the center to remain closed for repairs for several more weeks.

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Reposted from the Independent

An American tourist was caught trying to steal part of the rail tracks at the former Auschwitz death camp in Poland, according to officials.

The 37-year-old man faces up to ten years in prison after being charged with attempted theft of an item of cultural importance from the Holocaust memorial site.

He is said to have tried to take a metal part of the tracks where prisoners were unloaded during World War Two.

The man admitted his guilt, according to Malgorzata Jurecka, a police spokeswoman in the town of Oswiecim.

Earlier this month visitors to Auschwitz were asked to stop posing for photos while balancing on its infamous railway tracks.

It follows a series of thefts and incidents of vandalism at the site where more than 1.1 million Jews were killed.

In 2009 the famous 16ft-wide sign bearing the Nazi slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Will Set You Free) was stolen from the front gate.

It was later found cut into pieces and a former Swedish neo-Nazi was jailed for more than two years for masterminding the theft.

Two British schoolboys were caught stealing artefacts from Auschwitz, including buttons and a razor, in 2015. They were later fined £400 each.

And last year an Israeli teenager was fined for urinating on a memorial commemorating the victims of the Holocaust at the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum. 

Details of the latest theft emerged as 700 Holocaust artefacts were transported to New York for an exhibition at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

The exhibits include a vintage German train car like those used to transport men, women and children to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps.

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Reposted from St. Louis Post Dispatch

A rare manuscript library on Russell Boulevard caught fire Tuesday evening, sending at least two dozen firetrucks to the location and dozens of onlookers into the street, but leaving officials with hope that firefighters had saved much of the collection.

St. Louis’ Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, at 3524 Russell Boulevard, housed some of California collector David Karpeles’ collection of original manuscripts, one of the largest in the world.

“I’m thousands of miles away,” Karpeles said Tuesday from his home in Santa Barbara. “I’m very nervous at the moment. I don’t know what to say or think.”

The St. Louis Fire Department received its first call to the fire at 7 p.m., and quickly gave the blaze four-alarm status. By 7:45 p.m., the back of the building was engulfed, flames were shooting 6 to 8 feet above the roof, and smoke poured out of the windows, the glow of fire behind them.

At least 80 firefighters responded, officials said. They hauled out statues and old wooden model ships as the building burned, said Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson. “They knew they were in a museum,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Don’t leave empty-handed. Grab something and get it out of here.’”

At one point, part of the second-floor ceiling collapsed while at least 20 firefighters were inside, Jenkerson said. “The entire ceiling came down around and on some of these guys,” he said.

No one was injured. Flames were largely extinguished by 9 p.m.

Kerry Manderbach, director of the museum, was on site Tuesday evening and said the manuscripts were largely housed on the first floor, and the fire, at least in the front of the building, was mostly on the second. Upstairs was a sanctuary or chapel, he said. Earlier in the day, a smoke alarm went off, and he ran into the museum and grabbed old manuscripts regarding Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.

The museum opened in 2015, the 13th branch in a system created by David and Marsha Karpeles, who made their fortune in Southern California real estate. Collectors of historic documents for decades, they founded the first of their museums in 1983.

The building, a six-columned brick-and-stone church with arching stained-glass windows, sits just five houses off South Grand Boulevard, across the street from Compton Hill’s Reservoir Park, and on a block of mansions, luxury apartments and grand old St. Louis homes. Originally the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, the 107-year-old Greek Revival structure more recently housed the New Paradise Missionary Baptist Church.

The St. Louis Karpeles location has displayed, among other things, St. Louis’ application to join the National League, a Gutenberg Bible, the Confederate Constitution, a map from the Spanish Armada, Babe Ruth’s first baseball contract, the first draft of the Bill of Rights, and Columbus’ handwritten letter describing the coasts of America in his last voyage of discovery.

Exhibits are rotated among branches.

“The extraordinary thing about the Karpeles collection is the diversity,” Stephen White, then the director of the Karpeles Museum in Charleston, S.C., told the Post-Dispatch in 2015. “What does he collect? Anything and everything, in the arts, mathematics, politics, science, religion, the whole range of academic subjects.”

It was unclear which manuscripts were at the St. Louis location when the fire broke out on Tuesday. The museum’s Facebook page said it was exhibiting documents from Russia, from 1711-1963, and also a section on the St. Louis Black Media Experience. Manderbach said the museum had a yearbook from Fidel Castro’s time in high school, and military documents pertaining to Guevara, the Argentine revolutionary.

Manderbach said the documents were all in protective cases or files, and the fire department tried not to soak them while fighting the upstairs fire.

“I feel pretty devastated,” Manderbach said. “This is a wonderful resource for the community, and to think we might lose it — not lose the documents — but the exhibition space, it’s heart-wrenching.”

Karpeles said he was on the phone with his assistant director in Seattle to make plans for the St. Louis museum’s collection.

The museum also housed the St. Louis Media History Foundation’s collection, which includes archives, recordings, posters, photographs and T-shirts from the region’s radio, television, print and advertising history. Foundation Executive Director Frank Absher said the collection, in filing cabinets, wasn’t burned but may have water damage. He figured the museum building itself, however, could be beyond repair.

“It’s terrible to lose a building of this historical significance,” he said.

Absher was supposed to pick up some items from the museum Friday to display at a dinner Saturday celebrating the St. Louis Media Hall of Fame, which the foundation maintains.

“There will be a table,” he said. “But it will be sparse.”

Neighbors gathered in the grass at Reservoir Park. Eric Ericson said the blaze was devastating to watch.

Firefighters aimed water cannons at the windows and then “blew through the beautiful art glass,” Ericson said.

“It’s really sad to see this,” Ericson said.

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Inovonics

Pre-Release Notice
EH4104R and EH1115EOL Wireless Commercial Fire Products

What's New
Inovonics plans to launch the EH4104R single zone fire RF receiver with relay and EH1115EOL single input fire RF transmitter.

The Benefit
This product will allow Inovonics to provide a commercially approved wireless fire solution that can be easily added to most commercial fire alarm systems.

New Functionality
The EH4104R single zone fire RF receiver with relay allows you to add a transmitter to a commercial fire application. The EH1115EOL single input fire RF transmitter with end of line resistor (EOL) allows you to connect to a fire switch with standard contacts. Both of the wireless fire products will hold a UL 864 10th edition fire alarm system listing. With the UL 864 listing, both products will also be listed with the California State Fire Marshall (CSFM).

The Inovonics EH4104R receiver is UL 864 (Control Units and Accessories for Fire Alarm Systems) listed when deployed with compatible listed UL 864 fire alarm control panels. Please refer to the receiver's installation instructions for the complete guide on how to connect to a panel.

Availability
We expect the EH4104R and EH1115EOL to be available in early May, 2019.

Doing Your Part
Please contact your Inovonics account manager if you require additional information to begin integrating the EH4104R and EH1115EOL into your business operations.

Have a specific question? Contact Michael today!

Michael Um
Senior Product Manager
mum@inovonics.com

Reposted from the Smithsonian

It took just 81 minutes for a pair of thieves targeting Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to abscond with 13 works of art collectively valued at more than $500 million. But nearly 30 years after the daring March 18, 1990, heist, the frames that once held such masterpieces as Rembrandt’s “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee” and Vermeer’s “The Concert” stand empty, and the case remains unsolved.

Theories surrounding the missing works abound—as the Boston Globe’s Shelley Murphy and Stephen Kurkjian wrote in 2017, commonly cited suspects include the local mob, the 23-year-old security guard who buzzed the thieves, masquerading as police officers, into the building, and even Mafia boss James “Whitey” Bulger—but no arrests have ever been made.

Now, Edmund H. Mahony reports for the Hartford Courant, an octogenarian mobster who authorities say could be the last living link to the heist is set to be released from prison after serving 54 months on an unrelated firearms charge.

Robert Gentile, 82, first found himself under investigators' scrutiny in 2010, when the widow of another Boston gangster, Robert Guarente, told agents she witnessed her husband handing him two of the stolen paintings outside of a Portland, Maine, hotel a decade or so earlier.

A bevy of evidence tying Gentile with the theft has surfaced since this initial accusation. As Mahony notes, investigators highlight telling testimony from mob associates, a polygraph test that signaled a 99.9 percent probability Gentile was lying about his connection to the theft, and a list of stolen works’ black market price points that was found during a 2012 search of the mobster’s home.

Speaking with the Hartford Courant in 2016, longtime associate Sebastian Mozzicato posited that Gentile had enjoyed access to the works beginning in the late 1990s, when his Boston gang purportedly wrested control of the trove from the original thieves. (As Colin Moynihan observes for The New York Times, the F.B.I. made a 2013 announcement stating its agents had identified the thieves but would not reveal their names, as the two individuals in question were no longer alive.) Working with the F.B.I., Mozzicato and his cousin managed to record Gentile discussing the possible sale of several stolen paintings. The sting failed, however, after the mobster grew suspicious of his colleagues-turned-informants.

Gentile has long maintained his innocence, describing the string of weapons charges leveled against him in recent years as an F.B.I. ploy designed to coerce him into revealing non-existent knowledge of the stolen works’ location. In a 2015 statement to the court, Gentile’s lawyer, A. Ryan McGuigan, argued that his client was guilty of nothing more than being a “braggadocio” with a need for attention. Expanding on this idea in a 2016 court filing, McGuigan said Gentile was running a “scam for all it was worth in hopes of getting some quick cash" and "proceeded to lead his merry band of informers and double agents on a merry hunt."

Gentile’s current prison stay stems from a February 2018 trial, Mahony writes in a separate Hartford Courant piece. At the time, a judge sentenced Gentile to 54 months for selling a pistol to a known killer who had reportedly set out to “clip that fellow in Maine.” According to a 2016 Hartford Courant report, the individual in question was acting as a confidential informant for agents working on the Gardner investigation.

Accounting for the 35 months the mobster served while awaiting trial, as well as time subtracted for good behavior, Gentile’s impending release marks the completion of this sentence. It remains unclear whether the wheelchair-bound, consistently ailing octogenarian will be permitted to return to his Manchester, Connecticut, home, which investigators have thoroughly searched on four previous occasions. (A 2012 search yielded police hats, badges, $20,000 in cash, a sizable weapons horde and the list of stolen works’ potential selling prices, but as Mahony reports, the F.B.I. found no trace of the missing art.)

In May 2017, the Gardner Museum doubled the reward for information leading to the 13 items’ return, raising the stakes from $5 million to $10 million. At the time, NPR’s Camila Domonoske explains, the Boston institution said it would require interested parties to cash in on the prize by January 1, 2018.

As Anthony Amore, head of security at the museum, told NPR ahead of the New Year’s Day deadline, “I am focused like a laser beam on one thing and that is recovering our stolen art and putting it back on the walls here at the museum, where it belongs.”

More than a year later, the reward remains fixed at $10 million, and the frames still stand empty. It remains to be seen whether Gentile’s return to society will help investigators restore the missing works to their rightful place or mark yet another frustrating chapter in the decades-long saga of one of art history’s greatest mysteries.

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Darryl Marshall was born on July 31, 1957 in Chicago, IL. He was one of two sons born to the late Hicks and Mary (Wilkins) Marshall.

Darryl graduated from Calumet High School in 1975 and went on to attend Western Illinois University with a degree in Law Enforcement Administration. He continued his education and received his Master’s in Human Resources Management from the University of Phoenix in 2006 and a Certificate of Participation, Managers Academy, at Stanford University.

Darry was employed by the Chicago Tribune where he worked for over 20 years. His last position there was Director of Security for the Broadcast Unit. It was there Darryl met the love of his live, Sarah Jones. After two years of dating, the two decided to marry in June 2003 at their home in Matteson, Illinois. After leaving the Chicago Tribune Darryl accepted a position as the Director of Protections Services for the Field Museum. After 6 years of service, Darryl saw an opportunity to expand his career, he was also excited about the opportunities that it would bring to his family, especially his children, so he uprooted his family and accepted a position in California working at Stanford University as Director of Cantor and Anderson Collection. During this time Darryl’s career evolved. Darryl began mentoring when time permitted.

Darryl was professional and dedicated in all aspects of his career. He was well respected by all, and loved by many. Darryl was affiliated with any organizations such as ASIS International (the world’s largest membership organization for security management professionals), International Foundation of Cultural Property Protection (IFCPP), Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) and Association of Threat Assessment Professionals. Darryl went on to participate in a leadership program with Colin Powell at Georgetown University, for the International Security Management Association (ISMA). Darryl loved what he did and the people he worked closely with.

The most important things in Darryl’s life were his love of God and his love for his family. Darryl was a member of Victory Apostolic Church in Matteson, IL., where he served on the ABBA Fathers Ministry and the Men’s Choir. During this time Darryl become friends with many church members that touched him very much. As a young man he would visit his parents’ house every Sunday to enjoy the fellowship of family and his mother’s delicious cakes. He and his wife, Sarah, cared for his parents in their golden years. Darryl was a dedicated father who supported his children spiritually and emotionally. He generously gave of his time and talents to ensure their wellbeing.

On February 25, 2019, at the age of 61, Darryl made his transition to Heaven to join his parents, Hicks and Mary, as well as his brother, Rickey, all of whom have preceded him in death.

Darryl leaves a legacy of love to his wife, Sarah Jones Marshall; two sons, JaMichael and Jared; a daughter, Kayla; nephews, Nathan (Khara) and Brian; a niece, Hannah; a sister-in-law; Charanne Marshall; a best friend, Tye Stone; and a host of other relatives and dear friends.

Reposted from The New York Times

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Monday that her department may have been founded to combat terrorism, but its mission is shifting to also confront emerging online threats.

China, Iran and other countries are mimicking the approach that Russia used to interfere in the U.S. presidential election in 2016 and continues to use in an attempt to influence campaigns on social media, she said. Under threat are Americans' devices and networks.

"It's not just U.S. troops and government agents on the front lines anymore," Nielsen said. "It's U.S. companies. It's our schools and gathering places. It's ordinary Americans."

Devices and networks are "mercilessly" targeted, she said. Those responsible are "compromising, co-opting, and controlling them."

Nielsen was speaking about the priorities of a sprawling department created after the Sept. 11 attacks. It handles counterterrorism, election security and cybersecurity, natural disaster responses and border security — President Donald Trump's signature domestic issue.

The president on Friday issued his first veto , to secure money for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. Nielsen did not specifically mention that fight, but made clear that she sees a humanitarian and security crisis at the border because of an increasing number of Central American families crossing into the U.S. to seek asylum.

While the overall number of migrants coming into the U.S. is down from a high of 1.6 million in 2000, the number of families crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has reached record highs. The system is at a breaking point, she said.

Nielsen said the department has introduced tougher screening systems at airports and is working with the State Department to notify other countries of stricter information-sharing requirements. She said the countries that work with the U.S. will make the world safer, and those that do not "will face consequences."

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Reposted from StaySafeOnline

I’m going to start this piece off with a statement that you may find a little controversial: it doesn’t matter how much you spend on cybersecurity.

Before you bounce from the page, allow me to explain. How much you spend matters very little. It’s how you spend it that makes a real difference.

Too often, I see businesses throwing away money on point solutions that they ultimately never use. I see them implement new technology but fail to leverage its full potential. I see them invest in protecting areas that don’t represent a risk to their data while ignoring areas that do.

“A lot of [cybersecurity technology] gets acquired and is not leveraged,” explains Tom Parker, Managing Director of Accenture Security. “A lot of the time it’s about having organizations understanding the value of what they have already invested in…It’s easy for us in this industry to say ‘sure you need more budget and give us more money,’ but the reality is the conversation you want to have is not about how much money you have to spend, but how to spend smart money on the problem.”

So, how do you spend smart on cybersecurity? How do you ensure your investments aren’t just wasted capital and the time and resources you expend actually protect what needs to be protected? It all starts with understanding your organization.

Know Your Infrastructure

What devices do your employees most frequently use in the workplace? What mobile devices are present in your organization and how do your employees use those devices? What endpoints exist both inside and outside of your office?

How does data flow between all these endpoints? What are your most sensitive files – what does your business need to protect above all else and why? Where are those files stored and who has access to them?

Last but certainly not least, what apps are critical to employee workflows and what potential security risks do they pose?

These are all questions you need to answer before you can form even a partial understanding of where and how to invest your security budget. But this isn’t the only information you need to know. It’s also critical that you understand the threat landscape facing your business and that you incorporate some form of threat intelligence solution.

Incorporate Threat Intelligence

As you’ve probably surmised, threat intelligence should probably be one of your first investments. Threat intelligence is a way to monitor, analyze and respond to the cyber threats facing your business. Equipped with an understanding of what it is you need to protect, you can implement systems that allow you to keep track of those assets. How advanced you want these systems to be is entirely up to you.

On the one hand, you might settle for network monitoring systems that alert your administrators whenever suspicious behavior occurs. On the other, you might employ advanced processes, tools and techniques such as machine learning, data analytics and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms. If you have the budget and the expertise to do so, there’s no harm in employing such tactics.

Make sure you’ve spent the necessary time and money on establishing a good foundation first.

Put Good Processes in Place

You should harden your systems. You should use firewalls and anti-malware software. That’s all table stakes – it’s basic stuff you’re probably doing already.

Ultimately, it’s not your hardware or application infrastructure that’s your weakest link. It’s your people. A good chunk of your cybersecurity budget should, therefore, go to staff education and awareness. You should have clear-cut policies and processes in place for handling everything from data access to a ransomware attack; and every employee should be aware of them.

Speak to A Cybersecurity Specialist

When in doubt, it’s almost always worthwhile to bring in a third-party specialist. They can help you locate weaknesses in your security posture, recommend point solutions that fit your specific use case and perform penetration tests on your existing security systems.

Remember That Cybersecurity is Not a “One and Done” Project

Last but certainly not least, the most important thing to remember about your cybersecurity budget is that you should treat it as something organic. Securing your business isn’t something you can ever really close the book on. You’re going to need to adapt how and where you spend your money based on how your business grows and the threat landscape evolves.

Otherwise, it doesn’t matter where you spend the money – you’ll eventually be spending it in all the wrong places.

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Reposted from the Independent

A gang of thieves thought they had got their hands on a €3m (£2.6m) painting, only to learn they had stolen a fake masterpiece after some artful policing.

Pieter Bruegel the Younger’s The Crucifixion seemingly vanished from a church in northwest Italy this week after robbers smashed open its case with hammer.

It looked to have been a perfectly executed heist, until police revealed on Thursday they had swapped the Flemish artist’s original 1617 oil painting with an exact replica.

After being tipped off about the planned theft last month, officers had also installed secret cameras in the church in town of Castelnuovo Magra in Liguria to catch the culprits in the act.

The town’s mayor Daniele Montebello was also in on the bluff, initially telling the media the loss of the “work of inestimable value” was “a hard blow for our community”.

He later admitted the real painting had been placed in secure storage weeks ago.

“The rumour had started to circulate that someone could steal the work and the Carabinieri [national military police] decided to keep it safe, replacing it with a copy and installing some cameras,” he told Italian news agency Ansa. “For investigative reasons we could not reveal anything.”

The mayor also thanked parishioners, some of whom had noticed the Bruegel on display in the Santa Maria Maddalena church “was not the original but did not reveal the secret”.

The painting, a reproduction of a work by the artist’s father, Bruegel the Elder, was donated to the church in the 19th century by a family of Italian nobles.

The thieves pulled up in a Peugeot at lunchtime on Wednesday before speeding off with the fake masterpiece in a smash-and-grab raid.

Police are now studying the surveillance footage in a bid to identify the gang.

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Reposted from CBS Denver

A teenager who damaged 10 works of art at the Denver Art Museum pleaded guilty on Thursday. Jake Siebenlist was 18 when he was arrested last December.

More than $96,000 in damage was done to the “Stampede: Art and Animals” exhibit on the fourth floor of the museum’s Frederic C. Hamilton Building.

After pleading guilty, Siebenlist received a three year deferred sentence, meaning he will be on probation. The judge also ordered Siebenlist to pay back the $96,000 in restitution. Siebenlist also has been ordered to stay away from the museum.

After Siebenlist’s rampage in the museum, Christoph Heinrich, the museum’s director, said he believed the works of art could be salvaged. The museum released a statement Thursday afternoon that said “affected objects are being evaluated by the Denver Art Museum’s art conservation staff, and specifics about repairs are not yet available.”

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