A federal indictment unsealed today in Alaska charges a Canadian national with committing cyberattacks. According to court documents, Matthew Philbert, 31, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, conspired to and did damage a computer belonging to the State of Alaska in April 2018. In a separate and parallel investigation, the Canadian authorities today also announced cyber charges…
Category: Hack
Microsoft seizes control of websites used by China-backed hackers
Carly Page reports: Microsoft has seized control of a number of websites that were being used by a Chinese government-backed hacking group to target organizations in 29 countries, including the U.S. Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCI) said on Monday that a federal court in Virginia had granted an order allowing the company to take control of the websites…
Florida teen and her mother accused of hacking homecoming queen election refuse plea deal, claiming they have been framed
In March 2021, news broke about a Florida teenager and her mother allegedly hacking votes to make her the high school homecoming queen. In May, it was announced that Emily Grover, who was 17 at the time of the alleged hacking, would be charged as an adult. Both she and her mother, Laura Rose Carroll,…
U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware – sources
Christopher Bing and Joseph Menn reports: Apple Inc iPhones of at least nine U.S. State Department employees were hacked by an unknown assailant using sophisticated spyware developed by the Israel-based NSO Group, according to four people familiar with the matter. The hacks, which took place in the last several months, hit U.S. officials either based…
Bitmart hacked; Estimated loss of $200M
Lipka Deka reports: Crypto exchange firm Bitmart suffered a large-scale hack incurring a total loss of approximately $200 million. The news was first brought to the attention by security analytics entity Pecksheild Inc who raised an alarm of the reported breach on Saturday night. Pechsheild sent out the tweet detailing the suspicious amount of outflows of a…
Who Is the Network Access Broker ‘Babam’?
Brian Krebs reports: Rarely do cybercriminal gangs that deploy ransomware gain the initial access to the target themselves. More commonly, that access is purchased from a cybercriminal broker who specializes in acquiring remote access credentials — such as usernames and passwords needed to remotely connect to the target’s network. In this post we’ll look at…