Security News
Law enforcement has started to distribute an Emotet module to infected devices that will uninstall the malware on April 25th, 2021. Today, Europol announced the disruption of the infamous Emotet email spamming botnet used to distribute malicious Word spam attachments that install malware such as TrickBot and Qbot.
As you can imagine, it operated on the so-called dark web, and you'd have needed the Tor browser to access it, using a special web address ending in. As it happens, the epithet dark in the word dark web isn't a metaphorical reference implying that everything on the dark web is evil and dystopian.
Europol on Tuesday announced the takedown of DarkMarket, which according to the law enforcement agency is "The world's largest illegal marketplace on the dark web." DarkMarket served as a marketplace for cybercriminals to buy and sell drugs, counterfeit money, stolen or counterfeit credit card data, anonymous SIM cards and malware.
Europol and the European Commission have launched a new decryption platform that will help boost Europol's ability to gain access to information stored in encrypted media collected during criminal investigations. The new decryption platform operated by Europol's European Cybercrime Centre was developed in collaboration with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre science and knowledge service.
The agency joins a chorus of security professionals that have concerns about widespread attacks on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. "The detection of a fake influenza vaccine confirms that criminals seize opportunities as soon as they present themselves," the Europol warning read. "Owing to the pandemic, the demand for the influenza vaccine has been higher than usual and there risks being a shortage. Criminals have reacted quickly by producing counterfeit influenza vaccines. The same scenario is also likely to happen when COVID-19 vaccines do become available."
Criminals quickly exploited the pandemic to attack vulnerable people; phishing, online scams and the spread of fake news became an ideal strategy for cybercriminals seeking to sell items they claim will prevent or cure COVID-19. The value of being able to access data of criminal communication on an encrypted network is perhaps the most effective illustration of how encrypted data can provide law enforcement with crucial leads beyond the area of cybercrime.
Criminals are preying on a fearful public and disrupting the provision of medical care during the coronavirus pandemic by selling counterfeit products, impersonating health workers and hacking computers as many citizens do their jobs online at home, European law enforcement agency Europol said Friday. "Criminals have quickly seized the opportunities to exploit the crisis by adapting their modes of operation or developing new criminal activities," Europol Executive Director, Catherine de Bolle said in a statement.
Cross-border investigations, Europol announced on Friday that it's arrested more than two dozen people suspected of draining bank accounts by hijacking victims' phone numbers via SIM-swap fraud. As we've explained, SIM swaps work because phone numbers are actually tied to the phone's SIM card - in fact, SIM is short for subscriber identity module, a special system-on-a-chip card that securely stores the cryptographic secret that identifies your phone number to the network.
Europol, along with the Spanish and the Romanian national police, has arrested 26 individuals in connection with the theft of over €3.5 million by hijacking people's phone numbers via SIM swapping attacks. The law enforcement agencies arrested 12 and 14 people in Spain and Romania, respectively, as part of a joint operation against two different groups of SIM swappers, Europol said.
Europol, along with the Spanish and the Romanian national police, has arrested 26 individuals in connection with the theft of over €3.5 million by hijacking people's phone numbers via SIM swapping attacks. The law enforcement agencies arrested 12 and 14 people in Spain and Romania, respectively, as part of a joint operation against two different groups of SIM swappers, Europol said.