Krebs

IndependentKrebs

Fake Emergency Search Warrants Draw Scrutiny from Capitol Hill

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2022 22:54:45 +0000

On Tuesday, KrebsOnSecurity warned that hackers increasingly are using compromised government and police department email accounts to obtain sensitive customer data from mobile providers, ISPs and social media companies. Today, one of the U.S. Senate’s most tech-savvy lawmakers said he was troubled by the report and is now asking technology companies and federal agencies for information about the frequency of such schemes.

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IndependentKrebs

Hackers Gaining Power of Subpoena Via Fake “Emergency Data Requests”

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2022 14:07:27 +0000

There is a terrifying and highly effective “method” that criminal hackers are now using to harvest sensitive customer data from Internet service providers, phone companies and social media firms. It involves compromising email accounts and websites tied to police departments and government agencies, and then sending unauthorized demands for subscriber data while claiming the information being requested can’t wait for a court order because it relates to an urgent matter of life and death.

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IndependentKrebs

A Closer Look at the LAPSUS$ Data Extortion Group

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2022 22:00:43 +0000

Microsoft and identity management platform Okta both disclosed this week breaches involving LAPSUS$, a relatively new cybercrime group that specializes in stealing data from big companies and threatening to publish the information unless a ransom demand is paid. Here’s a closer look at LAPSUS$, and some of the low-tech but high-impact methods the group uses to gain access to targeted organizations.

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IndependentKrebs

‘Spam Nation’ Villain Vrublevsky Charged With Fraud

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2022 16:33:35 +0000

Pavel Vrublevsky, founder of the Russian payment technology firm ChronoPay and the antagonist in my 2014 book “Spam Nation,” was arrested in Moscow this month and charged with fraud. Russian authorities allege Vrublevsky operated several fraudulent SMS-based payment schemes, and facilitated money laundering for Hydra, the largest Russian darknet market. But according to information obtained by KrebsOnSecurity, it is equally likely Vrublevsky was arrested thanks to his propensity for carefully documenting the links between Russia’s state security services and the cybercriminal underground.

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IndependentKrebs

Pro-Ukraine ‘Protestware’ Pushes Antiwar Ads, Geo-Targeted Malware

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2022 22:33:21 +0000

Researchers are tracking a number of open-source “protestware” projects on GitHub that have recently altered their code to display “Stand with Ukraine” messages for users, or basic facts about the carnage in Ukraine. The group also is tracking several code packages that were recently modified to erase files on computers that appear to be coming from Russian or Belarusian Internet addresses.

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IndependentKrebs

Lawmakers Probe Early Release of Top RU Cybercrook

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2022 15:37:43 +0000

Aleksei Burkov, a cybercriminal who long operated two of Russia’s most exclusive underground hacking forums, was arrested in 2015 by Israeli authorities. The Russian government fought Burkov’s extradition to the U.S. for four years — even arresting and jailing an Israeli woman to force a prisoner swap. That effort failed: Burkov was sent to America, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to nine years in prison. But a little more than a year later, he was quietly released and deported back to Russia. Now some Republican lawmakers are asking why a Russian hacker once described as “an asset of supreme importance” was allowed to shorten his stay.

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