Welcome back to another post from ToBeSecured and Happy Hump Day. On last week, I had my first interview of 2021 for my Cyber Tuesdays series, which served as episode 48. You can watch the episode by visiting @ToBeSecured on Instagram, where I've added it to the IGTV series. During this episode, I asked the interview a few questions around the effectiveness of security awareness, privacy, best practices to help my followers be secured, and social media. We also discussed Covid-19 and how everyone should still consider wearing a mask despite the lift order and continue to practice social distancing.
Today, I want to talk about the Netflix documentary that inspired me to write this post on today - Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal. This documentary gives some insight into the mastermind behind a scam to get the kids of rich and famous families into top US universities.
What exactly was inspiring about this documentary and how does it correlate to my blog? I'm glad you asked and are curious as you should definitely head over to Netflix to watch and return to give your thoughts on it. But to answer your question, the mastermind behind this scandal, Rick Singer, initially inspired me to share this documentary with my followers on my Insta Story. In addition, it amazed me that they didn't even consider nor care about the FBI's potential involvement.
I won't provide a lot of details about this documentary as I'm hoping you'll go watch instead of reading spoiler alerts here and I want to get straight to the point. Rick Singer performed his entire 2019 operation through phone calls which exposed wealthy Americans who offered bribes to academic institutions. The Netflix documentary explains Singer's professional network, and how "side-door" techniques ensured that clients' children would be admitted to elite academic institutions. Rick pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, tax conspiracy, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, but is still a free man to date.
The FBI was involved in a yearlong investigation after having received a tip and collected evidence against Rick, who made $25 million by running a scheme in which he bribed coaches and university administrators to designate the students as recruited athletes and also fixed SAT and ACT test scores. This is considered a federal crime because it violates the honest services owed to the school. Why would you perform this over the phone where you know the FBI or law enforcement could be listening?
Some people are afraid of technology listening in on their conversations, recording them, and then serving them advertisements. It happens all the time and honestly, it can be very creepy to see ads about places or things you literally just talked about. Rick Singer is definitely NOT one of those people as he was very brave to run an entire operation via phone and didn't think he would get caught. But as with everything, his scandal came crashing down and came to an end. I'd like to hear your thoughts around this documentary and whether you enjoyed watching it or not, because I sure did.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Subscribe to my blog if you haven't already and follow my Instagram - ToBeSecured for CyberTuesday vlogs. I have launched my YouTube channel and you can find me by simply typing Kassirer Dunn into the search engine. Thank you for tuning in and remember ToBeSecured!
Comments