Security News

Woman gets 66 months in prison for role in $3.3 million ID fraud op
2022-12-16 17:03

The Australian Federal Police have announced today that a 24-year-old woman from Melbourne, arrested in 2019 for her role in large-scale, cyber-enabled identity theft crimes, was sentenced to five years and six months in prison. According to the AFT, she was part of an international crime syndicate engaged in "Large-scale and sophisticated cybercrimes," stealing at least $3.3 million and laundering another $2.5 million.

SIM swapper sent to prison for 2FA cryptocurrency heist of over $20m
2022-12-06 19:56

As you'll know if ever you've lost a phone, or damaged a SIM card, mobile phone numbers aren't burned into the phone itself, but are programmed into the subscriber identity module chip that you insert into your phone. A crook who can sweet-talk, or bribe, or convince using fake ID, or otherwise browbeat your mobile phone provider into issuing "You" a new SIM card.

Couple sentenced to prison for trying to sell nuclear warship secrets
2022-11-09 22:39

A Navy nuclear engineer and his wife were sentenced to over 19 years and more than 21 years in prison for attempting to sell nuclear warship design secrets to what they believed was a foreign power agent. While working as a Navy nuclear engineer, Jonathan Toebbe had access to naval nuclear propulsion information, including military-sensitive design elements, performance characteristics, and other restricted data for nuclear-powered warship reactors.

Influencer 'Hushpuppi' gets 11 years in prison for cyber fraud
2022-11-08 14:39

An Instagram influencer known as 'Hushpuppi' has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for conspiring to launder tens of millions of USD from business email compromise scams and various cyber schemes. The 40-year-old Nigerian's real name is Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, and was ordered to pay restitution of $1,732,841 to two confirmed victims, a law firm in the U.S. and a businessperson in Qatar.

Prison inmate accused of orchestrating $11M fraud using cell cellphone
2022-10-13 00:10

On June 8, 2020, an individual claiming to be billionaire film producer and philanthropist Sidney Kimmel contacted brokerage Charles Schwab by phone and stated that he had uploaded a wire disbursement form using the service's secure email service. All the while the alleged mastermind, Arthur Lee Cofield Jr, was incarcerated in a maximum security prison in Butts County, Georgia, according to the government.

Canadian Netwalker Ransomware Affiliate Sentenced to 20 Years in U.S. Prison
2022-10-05 06:13

A former affiliate of the Netwalker ransomware has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in the U.S., a little over three months after the Canadian national pleaded guilty to his role in the crimes. Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins, 35, has also been ordered to forfeit $21,500,000 that was illicitly obtained from dozens of victims globally, including companies, municipalities, hospitals, law enforcement, emergency services, school districts, colleges, and universities.

Netwalker ransomware affiliate sentenced to 20 years in prison
2022-10-04 20:10

Former Netwalker ransomware affiliate Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins has been sentenced to 20 years in prison and demanded to forfeit $21.5 million for his attacks on a Tampa company and other entities.Vachon-Desjardins, a 34 Canadian man extradited from Quebec, was sentenced today in a Florida court after pleading guilty to 'Conspiracy to commit Computer Fraud', 'Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud', 'Intentional Damage to Protected Computer,' and 'Transmitting a Demand in Relation to Damaging a Protected Computer.

BEC fraudster and romance scammer sent to prison for 25 years
2022-10-04 19:12

In this case, we're referring to Elvis Eghosa Ogiekpolor, jailed for 25 years in Atlanta, Georgia for running a cybercrime group that scammed close to $10,000,000 in uunder two years from individuals and business caught up in so-called romance and BEC scams. BEC is short for business email compromise, an umbrella term for a form of online scam in which the attackers acquire login access to email accounts inside a company, so that the fraudulent emails they send don't just seem to come from the company they're attacking, but actually do come from there.

Drone Deliveries into Prisons
2022-08-03 11:50

Seems it’s now common to sneak contraband into prisons with a drone.

Nigerian Prison Break
2022-07-11 11:35

Armed with bombs, Rocket Propelled Grenade and General Purpose Machine Guns, the attackers, who arrived at about 10:05 p.m. local time, gained access through the back of the prison, using dynamites to destroy the heavily fortified facility, freeing 600 out of the prison's 994 inmates, according to the country's defense minister, Bashir Magashi. What's interesting to me is how the defenders got the threat model wrong.