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….
Author: Dissent
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…
Hack of Opexus Was at Root of Massive Federal Data Breach
This breach may not turn out to be the biggest insider breach of 2025, but it may well turn out to be one of the most impactful. Jason Leopold reports: A software company that handles sensitive data for nearly every US federal agency was the victim of a cyber breach earlier this year due to…
‘Deep concern’ for domestic abuse survivors as cybercriminals expected to publish confidential abuse survivors’ addresses
Alexander Martin reports: Sensitive information about women and girls who have survived domestic abuse is now expected to be exposed through a data extortion incident impacting the British government’s Legal Aid Agency, potentially revealing their locations to abusers and in some cases requiring them to move homes. The government confirmed the incident on Monday, saying everyone who applied for…