Security News
First, German federal police in coordination with US law enforcement seized Hydra servers and cryptocurrency wallets containing $25 million in Bitcoin, thus shutting down the online souk. Later on Tuesday, the US Justice Department announced criminal charges against one of the alleged Hydra operators and system administrators, 30-year-old Dmitry Olegovich Pavlov of Russia.
Ransomware payments hit new records in 2021 as cybercriminals increasingly turned to dark web leak sites where they pressured victims to pay up by threatening to release sensitive data, according to a research released from Unit 42 by Palo Alto Networks. The Conti ransomware group was responsible for the most activity, accounting for more than 1 in 5 of cases worked by Unit 42 consultants in 2021.
A special law enforcement operation undertaken by Russia has led to the seizure and shutdown of four online bazaars that specialized in the theft and sales of stolen credit cards, as the government continues to take active measures against harboring cybercriminals on its territory. Ferum Shop, active since October 2013, made as much as $256 million in Bitcoin from stolen card sales, accounting for nearly 17% of the stolen credit card market.
An Israeli citizen who operated DeepDotWeb, a news site and review site for dark web sites, has received a sentence of 97 months in prison for money laundering and was ordered to forfeit $8,414,173. The DeepDotWeb site didn't host anything malicious or harmful but directly linked to various dark web marketplaces selling illegal goods.
An Israeli citizen who operated DeepDotWeb, a news site and review site for dark web sites, has received a sentence of 97 months in prison for money laundering and was ordered to forfeit $8,414,173. The DeepDotWeb site didn't host anything malicious or harmful but directly linked to various dark web marketplaces selling illegal goods.
Dark Web forum posts uncovered by Trustwave show that the recent arrests in Russia have triggered major concerns among fellow criminals. It's these arrests that appear to be causing fear among other cybercriminals.
UniCC, the biggest dark web marketplace of stolen credit and debit cards, has announced that it's shuttering its operations after earning $358 million in purchases since 2013 using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ether, and Dash. "Don't build any conspiracy theories about us leaving," the anonymous operators of UniCC said in a farewell posted on dark web carding forums, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.
A team of researchers at the Universities of Arizona, Georgia, and South Florida, have developed a machine-learning-based CAPTCHA solver that they claim can overcome 94.4% of real challenges on dark websites. The collection of cyber-threat intelligence from illicit dark web markets and forums becomes challenging and expensive, as employees have to be involved in the CAPTCHA solving step.
A dark web marketplace named '2easy' is becoming a significant player in the sale of stolen data "Logs" harvested from roughly 600,000 devices infected with information-stealing malware. "Logs" are archives of data stolen from compromised web browsers or systems using malware, and their most important aspect is that they commonly include account credentials, cookies, and saved credit cards.
Cannazon, one of the largest dark web marketplaces for buying marijuana products, shut down last week after suffering a debilitating distributed denial of service attack. The admins posted that message on November 23, 2021, and today, Cannazon went offline, allegedly forever.