A federal grand jury returned an indictment unsealed today in Newark, New Jersey charging Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, 27, both of Iran, in a 34-month-long international computer hacking and extortion scheme involving the deployment of sophisticated ransomware, announced Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski…
Month: November 2018
Singapore State Courts’ digital files accessed illegally due to system loophole
Eileen Yu reports: Singapore’s State Courts has revealed that several digital documents have been accessed without proper authorisation due to a loophole in a filing system. The Integrated Criminal Case Filing and Management System (ICMS) was used in court for criminal proceedings and to support an Accused Person online portal. The portal could be accessed…
Hackers are using leaked NSA hacking tools to quietly hijack thousands of computers
Zack Whittaker reports: More than a year after patches were released to thwart powerful NSA exploits that leaked online, hundreds of thousands of computers are unpatched and vulnerable. First they were used to spread ransomware. Then it was cryptocurrency mining attacks. Now, researchers say that hackers are using the leaked tools to create an even…
OPM to Rebid Identity Theft Protection Contract Affecting Millions of Hack Victims
Eric Katz reports: Millions of current and former federal employees could soon have a new company providing them with credit monitoring and identity theft protections, as the Office of Personnel Management plans to rebid a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The current contract, which OPM signed with ID Experts in the wake of…
Urban Massage exposed a huge customer database, including sensitive comments on its creepy clients
Zack Whittaker reports: Urban Massage, a popular massage startup that bills itself as providing “wellness that comes to you,” has leaked its entire customer database. The London, U.K.-based startup — now known as just Urban— left its Google-hosted ElasticSearch database online without a password, allowing anyone to read hundreds of thousands of customer and staff…
NC: Wilmington city employees’ health insurance info exposed by email error by BCBS NC
Emily Featherston reports: Email is no stranger to being linked to cases of identity theft and data breaches. Most of the time, the thief sends a phishing message that coaxes information out of the victim or brings along viruses or malware. However, a single email led to the improper release of the information of 158…