Matt Burgess and Lily Hay Newman report: The possibility that data could be inadvertently exposed in a misconfigured or otherwise unsecured database is a longtime privacy nightmare that has been difficult to fully address. But the new discovery of a massive trove of 184 million records—including Apple, Facebook, and Google logins and credentials for accounts connected to multiple governments—underscores the risks…
Author: Dissent
Mysterious hacking group Careto was run by the Spanish government, sources say
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai reports: More than a decade ago, researchers at antivirus company Kaspersky identified suspicious internet traffic of what they thought was a known government-backed group, based on similar targeting and its phishing techniques. Soon, the researchers realized they had found a much more advanced hacking operation that was targeting the Cuban government, among others….
16 Defendants Federally Charged in Connection with DanaBot Malware Scheme That Infected Computers Worldwide
LOS ANGELES – A federal grand jury indictment and criminal complaint unsealed today charge 16 defendants who allegedly developed and deployed the DanaBot malware which a Russia-based cybercrime organization controlled and deployed, infecting more than 300,000 victim computers around the world, facilitated fraud and ransomware, and caused at least $50 million in damage. The defendants include Aleksandr Stepanov, 39, a.k.a….
Russian national and leader of Qakbot malware conspiracy indicted in long-running global ransomware scheme
Operation Endgame had teased the announcement earlier today in a video called, “My Happy Lie — Cortes.” Now the Department of Justice has issued the following press release about Rafailevich Gallyamov, aka “Cortes” and other aliases: A federal indictment unsealed today charges Rustam Rafailevich Gallyamov, 48, of Moscow, Russia, with leading a group of cyber criminals who…
Texas Doctor Who Falsely Diagnosed Patients as Part of Insurance Fraud Scheme Sentenced to 10 Years’ Imprisonment
How often have you read concerns that patient information can be used for fraudulent purposes or that patient records can be altered by wrongdoers? Here’s a case where the wrongdoer is a doctor who altered patient records and inserted false diagnoses to defraud insurers — to the tune of over $118 million in false claims….
VanHelsing ransomware builder leaked on hacking forum
Lawrence Abrams reports: The VanHelsing ransomware-as-a-service operation published the source code for its affiliate panel, data leak blog, and Windows encryptor builder after an old developer tried to sell it on the RAMP cybercrime forum. […] As first reported by Emanuele De Lucia, the VanHelsing operators decided to beat the seller to punch, releasing the source code…