Security News
Spain's National Police Agency, the Policía Nacional, said last week it dismantled an unnamed cybercriminal organization and arrested eight individuals in connection with a series of SIM swapping attacks that were carried out with the goal of financial fraud. The suspects of the crime ring masqueraded as trustworthy representatives of banks and other organizations and used traditional phishing and smishing techniques to obtain personal information and bank data of victims before draining money from their accounts.
Last summer, the San Francisco police illegally used surveillance cameras at the George Floyd protests. It prohibits city agencies like the SFPD from acquiring, borrowing, or using surveillance technology, without prior approval from the city's Board of Supervisors, following an open process that includes public participation.
Some 15 server infrastructures used by crims to prepare ransomware attacks were seized by cops yesterday as part of an international sting to take down VPNLab.net. The VPN provider's service gave users "Shielded communications and internet access" that was used in "Support of serious criminals acts such as ransomware deployment and other cybercrime activities," Europol said today.
Ukrainian police officers have arrested a ransomware affiliate group responsible for attacking at least 50 companies in the U.S. and Europe. A 36-year-old resident of Ukraine's capital Kiev was identified as the leader of the group, which included his wife and three other acquaintances, the police states.
The AvosLocker ransomware operation provided a free decryptor after learning they encrypted a US government agency. While they provided a decryptor to the police department, the ransomware operation refused to provide a list of stolen files or how they breached the department's network.
The AvosLocker ransomware operation provided a free decryptor after learning they encrypted a US government agency. Last month, a US police department was breached by AvosLocker, who encrypted devices and stole data during the attack.
The Clop ransomware gang pwned a managed service provider with access to the UK's Police National Computer, dumping data on its dark web leaks site - but officials deny that police data was compromised. Reports surfaced in the Mail on Sunday newspaper over the weekend that the criminals had published information from the Police National Computer on their leaks site.
Romanian law enforcement authorities arrested a ransomware affiliate suspected of hacking and stealing sensitive info from the networks of multiple high-profile companies worldwide, including a large Romanian IT company with clients from the retail, energy, and utilities sectors. The apprehended ransomware affiliate stole a wide range of sensitive info from its targets' systems according to the Romanian National Police, including companies' financial information, employees' personal information, and customers' details.
The BlackMatter ransomware is allegedly shutting down its operation due to pressure from the authorities and recent law enforcement operations. This post warns affiliates that the ransomware operation was shutting down in 48 hours.
12 people have been detained as part of an international law enforcement operation for orchestrating ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure and large organizations that hit over 1,800 victims across 71 countries since 2019, marking the latest action against cybercrime groups. The suspects have been primarily linked to LockerGoga, MegaCortex, and Dharma ransomware, in addition to being in charge of laundering the ransom payments by funneling the ill-gotten Bitcoin proceeds through mixing services and cashing them out.