Day: February 7, 2023

Boeing plans to make staffing cuts in the aerospace company's finance and human resources departments in 2023, with a loss of around 2,000 jobs, the company said.

“We expect about 2,000 reductions primarily in Finance and HR through a combination of attrition and layoffs," Boeing said in a statement Monday. "While no one has been notified of job loss, we will continue to share information transparently to allow people to plan.”

The company, which recently relocated its headquarters to Arlington, Virginia, said it expects to “significantly grow” the overall workforce during the year. “We grew Boeing’s workforce by 15,000 last year and plan to hire another 10,000 employees this year with a focus on engineering and manufacturing,” the statement said.

Boeing's total workforce was 156,000 employees as of Dec. 31, 2022, the company said.

The Seattle Times reported Boeing, which has been one of the largest private employers in Washington state, plans to outsource about a third of the eliminated positions to Tata Consulting Services in Bengaluru, India.

Mike Friedman, a senior director of communications, told the Times the other positions will be eliminated as the company makes reductions in finance and human resources support services.

“Over time, some of our corporate functions have grown quite large. And with that growth tends to come bureaucracy or disparate systems that are inefficient,” Friedman said. “So we’re streamlining.”

The Times reported about 1,500 of the company's approximately 5,800 finance positions will be cut, with up to 400 more job cuts in human resources, which is about 15% of the department's total staff.

Source: Voice of America

The FBI and the law enforcement agencies of four U.S. allies are sounding the alarm about a dramatic increase in so-called "sextortion" schemes targeting minors on gaming apps and other digital platforms, saying it has become a global crisis.

Sextortion schemes, in which victims are coerced into sending explicit images and extorted for money, have victims of all ages but recent incidents suggest teenage boys are the primary targets.

On gaming sites and video chat applications, predators, often adults based in West Africa and posing as young girls, trick victims into sending them explicit videos or photos and then threaten to release the material unless they send money or gift cards.

In a joint warning, the FBI and its counterparts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, said they have seen an "explosion" in the number of such cases over the past year. The problem is happening around the world, they said.

"Financial sextortion has a far wider impact than just our country and our kids — it is a global crisis that demands everyone's attention," FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. "The FBI is working hand-in-hand with our international partners to prevent children from becoming victims of this tragic crime. We all have a duty to support and empower victims to come forward and show them that there is life after images."

The warning comes after the Department of Justice reported in December that more than 3,000 minors, primarily boys, had been targeted by financial sextortion in 2022, a sharp increase over previous years. More than a dozen victims committed suicide.

Predators typically target minors between the ages of 14 and 17 though victims as young as 10 have been identified, according to the Justice Department.

"Even though financial sextortion is committed virtually, it can have serious impacts offline," the FBI said in a statement. "After the threats and aggression, victims may feel alone, ashamed, scared, and these feelings can lead to children resorting to self harm."

Michelle DeLaune, CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, said her center has received more than 10,000 sextortion-related reports in the past year.

"We understand how young victims of this crime can feel like there's no way out, but we want them to know that they're not alone," DeLaune said in a statement, urging parents to talk to their children.

Source: Voice of America