Patricia Hurtado reports: An Estonian man who admitted directing what the U.S. called a massive “cybercriminal enterprise” that infected more than 4 million computers in 100 countries was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, the U.S. said. Vladimir Tsastsin, who was brought to the U.S. in 2014 for trial after fighting extradition for…
Category: Malware
FIN6 Group Stole Tens of Millions of Credit Card Records from PoS Systems
Catalin Cimpanu reports: Yesterday, security researchers from FireEye and iSight Partner revealed a report detailing the previously unknown mode of operation of a criminal group named FIN6. FireEye says the group surfaced in 2015 and focused only on the theft of financial information, mainly credit card data from organizations in the retail and hospitality sectors….
SpyEye Makers Get 24 Years in Prison
Brian Krebs reports: Two hackers convicted of making and selling the infamous SpyEye botnet creation kit were sentenced in Georgia today to a combined 24 years in prison for helping to infect hundreds of thousands of computers with malware and stealing millions from unsuspecting victims. Atlanta Judge Amy Totenberg handed down a sentence of nine years, six months for Aleksandr Andreevich Panin, a 27-year-old Russian national…
NJ: Newark police department computers hit by virus attack
Danny Palmer reports: A virus infected computer systems at Newark Police Department in New Jersey last week, taking four days to clean up. The police department said there was no evidence of any sort of data breach and that the attack “did not disrupt the delivery of emergency services to our citizens”. Read more on…
Blackhole’ Exploit Kit Author Gets 7 Years
Brian Krebs reports: A Moscow court this week convicted and sentenced seven hackers for breaking into countless online bank accounts — including “Paunch,” the nickname used by the author of the infamous “Blackhole” exploit kit. Once an extremely popular crimeware-as-a-service offering, Blackhole was for several years responsible for a large percentage of malware infections and stolen…
California ransomware bill supported by Hollywood hospital passes committee
Bradley Barth reports: A proposed California legislation imposing specific penalties for ransomware took a step forward yesterday when the state senate’s Public Safety Committee passed the bill at a hearing that featured testimony from Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center (HPMC) — a notable victim of the ongoing ransomware epidemic. The legislation, Senate Bill 1137, would amend California’s penal code making it…