Security News > 2021 > October > Transnational Fraud Ring Bilks U.S. Military Service Members Out of Millions

More than 3,300 U.S. military service members, military dependents and civilians employed by the Department of Defense were compromised as part of a transnational cybercrime ring created to defraud them out of $1.5 million in military benefits from the DoD and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

A former civilian medical records technician and administrator with the U.S. Army was at the center of the scheme, according to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

In his capacity as a records technician, Brown had access to a military electronic health records database.

As part of its nefarious work, the ring particularly targeted disabled veterans, who were selected because they were eligible for more service-related benefits, court officials said.

U.S. service members have been victims of PII exposure in the past.

In May for example, a database filled with the medical records of nearly 200,000 U.S. military veterans was exposed online by a vendor working for the VA, and an analyst found that it might have been exfiltrated by ransomware attackers.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/transnational-fraud-military-members/175298/