The Coming Storm

IndependentKrebs

T-Mobile Employee Made Unauthorized ‘SIM Swap’ to Steal Instagram Account

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 18 May 2018 18:35:24 +0000

T-Mobile is investigating a retail store employee who allegedly made unauthorized changes to a subscriber’s account in an elaborate scheme to steal the customer’s three-letter Instagram username. The modifications, which could have let the rogue employee empty bank accounts associated with the targeted T-Mobile subscriber, were made even though the victim customer already had taken steps recommended by the mobile carrier to help minimize the risks of account takeover. Here’s what happened, and some tips on how you can protect yourself from a similar fate.

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IndependentKrebs

Tracking Firm LocationSmart Leaked Location Data for Customers of All Major U.S. Mobile Carriers Without Consent in Real Time Via Its Web Site

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 17 May 2018 18:29:18 +0000

LocationSmart, a U.S. based company that acts as an aggregator of real-time data about the precise location of mobile phone devices, has been leaking this information to anyone via a buggy component of its Web site — without the need for any password or other form of authentication or authorization — KrebsOnSecurity has learned. The company took the vulnerable service offline early this afternoon after being contacted by KrebsOnSecurity, which verified that it could be used to reveal the location of any AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon phone in the United States to an accuracy of within a few hundred yards.

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IndependentKrebs

Security Trade-Offs in the New EU Privacy Law

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2018 17:27:40 +0000

On two occasions this past year I’ve published stories here warning about the prospect that new European privacy regulations could result in more spams and scams ending up in your inbox. This post explains in a question and answer format some of the reasoning that went into that prediction, and responds to many of the criticisms leveled against it.

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IndependentKrebs

Secret Service Warns of Chip Card Scheme

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2018 15:50:42 +0000

The U.S. Secret Service is warning financial institutions about a new scam involving the temporary theft of chip-based debit cards issued to large corporations. In this scheme, the fraudsters intercept new debit cards in the mail and replace the chips on the cards with chips from old cards. When the unsuspecting business receives and activates the modified card, thieves can start draining funds from the account.

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IndependentKrebs

San Diego Sues Experian Over ID Theft Service

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2018 16:31:26 +0000

The City of San Diego, Calif. is suing big three consumer credit bureau Experian, alleging that a data breach first reported by KrebsOnSecurity in 2013 affected more than a quarter-million people in San Diego but that Experian never alerted affected consumers as required under California law. The lawsuit, filed by San Diego city attorney Mara Elliott, concerns a data breach at an Experian subsidiary that lasted for nine months ending in 2013. As first reported here in October 2013, a Vietnamese man named Hieu Minh Ngo ran an identity theft service online and gained access to sensitive consumer data held by Experian’s subsidiary by posing as a licensed private investigator.

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IndependentKrebs

Survey: Americans Spent $1.4B on Credit Freeze Fees in Wake of Equifax Breach

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2018 14:08:46 +0000

Almost 20 percent of Americans froze their credit file with one or more of the big three credit bureaus in the wake of last year’s data breach at Equifax, costing consumers an estimated $1.4 billion, according to a new study. The findings come as lawmakers in Congress are debating legislation that would make credit freezes free in every state. The figures, commissioned by small business loan provider Fundera and conducted by Wakefield Research, surveyed some 1,000 adults in the U.S. Respondents were asked to self-report how much they spent on the freezes; 32 percent said the freezes cost them $10 or less, but 38 percent said the total cost was $30 or more. The average cost to consumers who froze their credit after the Equifax breach was $23. A credit freeze blocks potential creditors from being able to view or “pull” your credit file, making it far more difficult for identity thieves to apply for new lines of credit in your name.

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IndependentKrebs

15-Year-old Finds Flaw in Ledger Crypto Wallet

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2018 17:19:11 +0000

A 15-year-old security researcher has discovered a serious flaw in cryptocurrency hardware wallets made by Ledger, a French company whose popular products are designed to physically safeguard public and private keys used to receive or spend the user’s cryptocurrencies. Hardware wallets like those sold by Ledger are designed to protect the user’s private keys from malicious software that might try to harvest those credentials from the user’s computer.  The devices enable transactions via a connection to a USB port on the user’s computer, but they don’t reveal the private key to the PC. Yet Saleem Rashid, a 15-year-old security researcher from the United Kingdom, discovered a way to acquire the private keys from the Ledger devices. Rashid’s method requires an attacker to have physical access to the device, and normally such attacks would fall under the #1 rule of security — namely, if an attacker has physical access to your device it is not your device anymore.

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IndependentKrebs

Who Is Afraid of More Spams and Scams?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2018 13:55:45 +0000

Security researchers who rely on data included in Web site domain name records to combat spammers and scammers will likely lose access to that information for at least six months starting at the end of May 2018, under a new proposal that seeks to bring the system in line with new European privacy laws. The result, some experts warn, will likely mean more spams and scams landing in your inbox.

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