Ne’er-Do-Well News

IndependentKrebs

Alleged ‘Scattered Spider’ Member Extradited to U.S.

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2025 21:54:59 +0000

A 23-year-old Scottish man thought to be a member of the prolific Scattered Spider cybercrime group was extradited last week from Spain to the United States, where he is facing charges of wire fraud, conspiracy and identity theft. U.S. prosecutors allege Tyler Robert Buchanan and co-conspirators hacked into dozens of companies in the United States and abroad, and that he personally controlled more than $26 million stolen from victims.

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IndependentKrebs

China-based SMS Phishing Triad Pivots to Banks

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2025 15:31:58 +0000

China-based purveyors of SMS phishing kits are enjoying remarkable success converting phished payment card data into mobile wallets from Apple and Google. Until recently, the so-called “Smishing Triad” mainly impersonated toll road operators and shipping companies. But experts say these groups are now directly targeting customers of international financial institutions, while dramatically expanding their cybercrime infrastructure and support staff.

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IndependentKrebs

U.S. Soldier Charged in AT&T Hack Searched “Can Hacking Be Treason”

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2025 03:39:25 +0000

A U.S. Army soldier who pleaded guilty last week to leaking phone records for high-ranking U.S. government officials searched online for non-extradition countries and for an answer to the question “can hacking be treason?” prosecutors in the case said Wednesday. The government disclosed the details in a court motion to keep the defendant in custody until he is discharged from the military.

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IndependentKrebs

U.S. Soldier Charged in AT&T Hack Searched “Can Hacking Be Treason”

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2025 03:39:25 +0000

A U.S. Army soldier who pleaded guilty last week to leaking phone records for high-ranking U.S. government officials searched online for non-extradition countries and for an answer to the question “can hacking be treason?” prosecutors in the case said Wednesday. The government disclosed the details in a court motion to keep the defendant in custody until he is discharged from the military.

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IndependentKrebs

Teen on Musk’s DOGE Team Graduated from ‘The Com’

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2025 00:32:53 +0000

Wired reported this week that a 19-year-old working for Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was given access to sensitive US government systems even though his past association with cybercrime communities should have precluded him from gaining the necessary security clearances to do so. As today’s story explores, the DOGE teen is a former denizen of ‘The Com,’ an archipelago of Discord and Telegram chat channels that function as a kind of distributed cybercriminal social network for facilitating instant collaboration.

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IndependentKrebs

FBI, Dutch Police Disrupt ‘Manipulaters’ Phishing Gang

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2025 18:35:32 +0000

The FBI and authorities in The Netherlands this week seized a number of servers and domains for a hugely popular spam and malware dissemination service operating out of Pakistan. The proprietors of the service, who use the collective nickname “The Manipulaters,” have been the subject of three stories published here since 2015. The FBI said the main clientele are organized crime groups that try to trick victim companies into making payments to a third party.

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IndependentKrebs

Infrastructure Laundering: Blending in with the Cloud

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2025 17:10:08 +0000

In an effort to blend in and make their malicious traffic tougher to block, hosting firms catering to cybercriminals in China and Russia increasingly are funneling their operations through major U.S. cloud providers. Research published this week on one such outfit — a sprawling network tied to Chinese organized crime gangs and aptly named “Funnull” — highlights a persistent whac-a-mole problem facing cloud services.

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