Security News
The European Union has, for the first time ever, slapped sanctions on hacking crews. "Sanctions are one of the options available in the EU's cyber diplomacy toolbox to prevent, deter and respond to malicious cyber activities directed against the EU or its member states, and today is the first time the EU has used this tool," the EU said of the decision.
Trend Micro unveiled new insights analyzing the market for underground hosting services and detailing how and where cybercriminals rent the infrastructure that hosts their business. There are varied types of underground hosting and associated services used by cybercriminals to operate their businesses, including bulletproof hosting, VPNs, anonymizers, and DDoS protection.
More than 15 billion username and password pairs have been offered on cybercrime marketplaces, including over 5 billion unique credentials, according to a report published on Wednesday by San Francisco-based risk protection solutions provider Digital Shadows. Over the past few years, Digital Shadows added to its breach repository more than 15 billion credentials shared on criminal forums, paste sites, file sharing services, and code sharing websites.
A Nigerian national who has more than 2.5 million followers on Instagram, where he flaunts his lavish lifestyle, was extradited from the United Arab Emirates and appeared in court in the United States to face cybercrime-related charges. As part of the scheme, Abbas is said to have provided two bank accounts in Europe to a co-conspirator.
An Instagram super-star with 2.3 million followers has been extradited to America accused of conspiring to launder hundreds of millions of dollars obtained via cyber-crime. Abbas allegedly ran so-called business email compromise scams, which typically involve hijacking email accounts, or impersonating strangers in emails, to fool victims into transferring money to the scammer's bank account rather than a legit recipient.
An Instagram super-star with 2.3 million followers has been extradited to America accused of conspiring to launder hundreds of millions of dollars obtained via cyber-crime. Abbas allegedly ran so-called business email compromise scams, which typically involve hijacking email accounts, or impersonating strangers in emails, to fool victims into transferring money to the scammer's bank account rather than a legit recipient.
A Russian national pleaded guilty last week for his role in an international cyber theft ring that caused losses of more than $568 million. The man, Sergey Medvedev, also known as "Stells," "Segmed" and "Serjbear," 33, admitted to engaging in criminal activities as part of the Infraud Organization, an international cybercrime gang that operated between October 2010 and February 2018.
A well-connected Russian hacker once described as "An asset of supreme importance" to Moscow was sentenced on Friday to nine years in a U.S. prison after pleading guilty to running a site that sold stolen payment card data, and to administering a highly secretive crime forum that counted among its members some of the most elite Russian cybercrooks. Aleksei Burkov of St. Petersburg, Russia admitted to running CardPlanet, a site that sold more than 150,000 stolen credit card accounts, and to being a founder of DirectConnection - a closely guarded underground community that attracted some of the world's most-wanted Russian hackers.
A dramatic uptick in scams, counterfeiting, and hacking plague retail and e-commerce industries during the coronavirus crisis, as businesses try to define their new normal. The data from the report revealed that 41% of retail executives surveyed cited a dramatic shift in retail and e-commerce, and a higher rate of cybercrime against their brands since the beginning of the pandemic.
The findings come in a new paper released by researchers at Cambridge University's Cybercrime Centre, which examined the quality and types of work needed to build, maintain and defend illicit enterprises that make up a large portion of the cybercrime-as-a-service market. In examining these businesses, the academics stress that the romantic notions of those involved in cybercrime ignore the often mundane, rote aspects of the work that needs to be done to support online illicit economies.