AlphV wasn’t the only group experiencing some disruption this week In August, “The Five Families” announced the collaboration of ThreatSec, SiegedSec, Stormous, BlackForums (now BlackSec), and GhostSec: A group created to establish better unity and connections for everyone in the underground world of the internet, to expand and grow our work and operations. We run…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Court of Justice of the European Union Rules That Fear May Constitute Damage Under the GDPR
Hunton Andrews Kurth writes: On December 14, 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) issued its judgment in the case of VB v. Natsionalna agentsia za prihodite (C‑340/21), in which it clarified, among other things, the concept of non-material damage under Article 82 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the rules…
USD 300 million seized and 3,500 suspects arrested in international financial crime operation
From Interpol: LYON, FRANCE – A transcontinental police operation against online financial crime has concluded with almost 3,500 arrests and seizures of USD 300 million (approx. EUR 273 million) worth of assets across 34 countries. The six-month Operation HAECHI IV (July-December 2023) targeted seven types of cyber-enabled scams: voice phishing, romance scams, online sextortion, investment…
AlphV reacts to law enforcement action by allowing affiliates to attack hospitals, critical infrastructure
In response to the takedown notice on their original leak site and other damage done to their operations as described in the DOJ press release and warrant application that was unsealed today, AlphV posted this: As you all know, the FBI got the keys to our blog, now we’ll tell you how it was. First,…
Why federal efforts to protect schools from cybersecurity threats fall short
The cost of safeguarding America’s schools from cybercriminals could run as high as $5 billion. boonchai wedmakawand via Getty Images Nir Kshetri, University of North Carolina – Greensboro In August 2023, the White House announced a plan to bolster cybersecurity in K-12 schools – and with good reason. Between 2018 and mid-September 2023, there were…
Opening a Can of Whoop Ads: Detecting and Disrupting a Malvertising Campaign Distributing Backdoors
Ryan Tomcik, Adrian McCabe, Rufus Brown, and Geoff Ackerman write: Earlier this year, Mandiant’s Managed Defense threat hunting team identified an UNC2975 malicious advertising (“malvertising”) campaign promoting malicious websites themed around unclaimed funds. This campaign dates back to at least June 19, 2023, and has abused search engine traffic and leveraged malicious advertisements to affect…