A Little Sunshine

IndependentKrebs

Buyers Beware of Tampered Gift Cards

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2017 16:28:57 +0000

Prepaid gift cards make popular presents and no-brainer stocking stuffers, but before you purchase one be on the lookout for signs that someone may have tampered with it. A perennial scam that picks up around the holidays involves thieves who pull back and then replace the decals that obscure the card’s redemption code, allowing them to redeem or transfer the card’s balance online after the card is purchased by an unwitting customer.

Read More
IndependentKrebs

The Market for Stolen Account Credentials

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2017 19:13:53 +0000

Past stories here have explored the myriad criminal uses of a hacked computer, the various ways that your inbox can be spliced and diced to help cybercrooks ply their trade, and the value of a hacked company. Today’s post looks at the price of stolen credentials for just about any e-commerce, bank site or popular online service, and provides a glimpse into the fortunes that an enterprising credential thief can earn selling these accounts on consignment.

Read More
IndependentKrebs

Former Botmaster, ‘Darkode’ Founder is CTO of Hacked Bitcoin Mining Firm ‘NiceHash’

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2017 16:48:18 +0000

On Dec. 6, 2017, approximately USD $52 million worth of Bitcoin mysteriously disappeared from the coffers of NiceHash, a Slovenian company that lets users sell their computing power to help others mine virtual currencies. As the investigation into the heist nears the end of its second week, many Nice-Hash users have expressed surprise to learn that the company’s chief technology officer recently served several years in prison for operating and reselling a massive botnet, and for creating and running ‘Darkode,” until recently the world’s most bustling English-language cybercrime forum.

Read More
IndependentKrebs

Mirai IoT Botnet Co-Authors Plead Guilty

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2017 16:23:18 +0000

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday unsealed the guilty pleas of two men first identified in January 2017 by KrebsOnSecurity as the likely co-authors of Mirai, a malware strain that remotely enslaves so-called “Internet of Things” devices such as security cameras, routers, and digital video recorders for use in large scale attacks designed to knock Web sites and entire networks offline (including multiple major attacks against this site).

Read More
IndependentKrebs

Hacked Password Service Leakbase Goes Dark

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2017 05:39:53 +0000

Leakbase, a Web site that indexed and sold access to billions of usernames and passwords stolen in some of the world largest data breaches, has closed up shop. A source close to the matter says the service was taken down in a law enforcement sting that may be tied to the Dutch police raid of the Hansa dark web market earlier this year.

Read More
IndependentKrebs

Who Was the NSA Contractor Arrested for Leaking the ‘Shadow Brokers’ Hacking Tools?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2017 17:01:26 +0000

In August 2016, a mysterious entity calling itself “The Shadow Brokers” began releasing the first of several troves of classified documents and hacking tools purportedly stolen from “The Equation Group,” a highly advanced threat actor that is suspected of having ties to the U.S. National Security Agency. According to media reports, at least some of the information was stolen from the computer of an unidentified software developer and NSA contractor who was arrested in 2015 after taking the hacking tools home. In this post, we’ll examine clues left behind in the leaked Equation Group documents that may point to the identity of the mysterious software developer.

Read More