Security News
First, the crooks steal a trove of company files that they threaten to make public or to sell on to other crooks; then they scramble the data files on all the company's computers in order to bring business to a halt. Recent reports include an attack on fitness tracking company Garmin, which was allegedly blackmailed for $10m and did pay up, though apparently after wangling the amount down into the "Multi-million" range; and on business travel company CWT, which faced a similar seven-figure demand and ended up handing over $4.5m to the criminals to get its business back on the rails.
The FBI has arrested a Russian national who recently traveled to the United States and offered $1 million in bribe to an employee of a targeted company for his help in installing malware into the company's computer network manually. Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, 27-year-old, entered the United States as a tourist and was arrested in Los Angeles after meeting with the unnamed employee of an undisclosed Nevada-based company numerous times, between August 1 to August 21, to discuss the conspiracy.
A Russian national was arrested in the United States after attempting to convince an employee at a targeted company to deploy a piece of malware. He promised $1 million to the employee and was allegedly planning to flee the United States after being contacted by the FBI. Kriuchkov, a criminal complaint and statements made in court reveal, conspired with others to recruit an employee at an unnamed company in Nevada, to convince them to install malware onto the organization's network, in exchange for $500,000.
The FBI has arrested a Russian national who recently traveled to the United States and offered $1 million in bribe to an employee of a targeted company for his help in installing malware into the company's computer network manually. Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, 27-year-old, entered the United States as a tourist and was arrested in Los Angeles after meeting with the unnamed employee of an undisclosed Nevada-based company numerous times, between August 1 to August 21, to discuss the conspiracy.
A new report from the Senate intelligence committee on Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election in the United States says WikiLeaks knowingly assisted the Kremlin's influence efforts. The United States has concluded that Russia conducted an extensive influence campaign leading up to the 2016 election, and a significant part of that campaign involved breaking into the computer systems of the Democratic party and Hilary Clinton's campaign and leaking information via the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
A just-released volume [PDF] from the panel's dossier on Russia's efforts to meddle in that year's White House race pretty much accuses the Assange-run WikiLeaks of actively helping Moscow in its dirty work - by obtaining the internal memos from Russian hackers and spreading them online to derail Hillary Clinton's campaign and help nudge Donald Trump to victory. 'A key role in the Russian influence campaign'.
A judge in Paris has ordered a French trial for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian suspected of money laundering on the bitcoin exchange BTC-e, also wanted by Washington and Moscow, his lawyer and other sources told AFP. Vinnik was extradited to France in January from Greece, where he had been arrested on an American warrant in 2017. Vinnik allegedly operated the BTC-e exchange until his arrest at the northern Greek tourist resort of Halkidiki, which set off a three-way extradition tussle between the United States, France and Russia.
The European Union imposed its first ever sanctions against alleged cyber attackers on Thursday, targeting Russian and Chinese individuals and a specialist unit of Moscow's GRU military intelligence agency. The best known of the targeted entities is the Main Centre for Special Technologies, a unit of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation - better known as the GRU. This unit, based on Kirova Street in Moscow, is said to have carried out attacks known as NotPetya and EternalPetya in June 2017, hitting EU private companies with ransomware and blocking data.
Paris prosecutors asked investigating judges on Wednesday to order a criminal trial for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian suspected of money laundering on the bitcoin exchange BTC-e, and who is also wanted by Washington and Moscow. They have also sought an order for Vinnik's continued detention since his extradition in January from Greece, where he was arrested on an American warrant in 2017, the prosecutor's office told AFP. Vinnik, 40, operated the BTC-e exchange until his arrest at the northern Greek tourist resort of Halkidiki, which set off a three-way extradition tussle between the United States, France and Russia.
Britain's cyber-security agency on Thursday accused a hacking group it said "Almost certainly" operates as part of Russian intelligence services of trying to steal research into potential coronavirus vaccines. The National Cyber Security Centre said the attacks by the group APT29 were ongoing but targets have so far included UK, US and Canadian vaccine research and development organisations.