Kartikay Mehrotra reports: Alla Witte’s plans for a new career as a computer programmer included helping clients make enough money to see the world, according to YouTube videos and social media posts. She was in her late 40s with a degree in applied mathematics and an itch to do computer programming. But there was a…
Category: Of Note
South Africa lays down the law on cybercrime
Karen Allen writes: A new law brings South Africa up to international standards for fighting cybercrime. […] Together with the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act 2020, which will be in full effect after 30 June 2021, the new cyber law is a key part of South Africa’s armoury in the fight against cybercrime. […] In summary, cybercrime…
Operators of MoviePass Subscription Service Agree to Settle FTC Allegations that They Limited Usage, Failed to Secure User Data
The operators of the MoviePass subscription service have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations they took steps to block subscribers from using the service as advertised, while also failing to secure subscribers’ personal data. Under the proposed settlement, MoviePass, Inc., its parent company Helios and Matheson Analytics, Inc. (Helios), and their principals, Mitchell Lowe and…
From QBot…with REvil Ransomware: Initial Attack Exposure of JBS
Vitali Kremez & Yelisey Boguslavskiy write: During the first week of June 2021, two major corporations were attacked by a ransomware group. JBS, the largest meat producer in the world, was hit on May 30, with the attack targeting the North American and Australian IT systems. Fujifilm, a Japanese multinational conglomerate was likely hit between…
FBI and Australian police ran an encrypted chat platform to catch criminal gangs
Catalin Cimpanu reports: The FBI and Australian Federal Police ran an encrypted chat platform and intercepted secret messages between criminal gang members from all over the world for more than three years. Named Operation Ironside (AFP) / Trojan Shield (FBI, Interpol) on Monday, law enforcement agencies from Australia, Europe, and the US conducted house searches and arrested thousands of…
The blurry boundaries between nation-state actors and the cybercrime underground
Intel471 writes: When it comes to attributing malicious cyber activity, there are two buckets by which actors generally fall in: “financially-motivated” or “nation-state.” The former is ultimately interested in money, while the latter is more concerned with obtaining or exploiting sensitive information to gain an advantage over a government or commercial entity. For the past…