Jim Mustian of AP reports: A software engineer on trial in the largest leak of classified information in CIA history was “prepared to do anything” to betray the agency, federal prosecutors said Monday as a defense attorney argued the man had been scapegoated for a breach that exposed secret cyberweapons and spying techniques. A Manhattan…
Category: Of Note
Ransomware victims are paying out millions a month. One particular version has cost them the most.
Steve Ranger reports: Ransomware victims have paid out more than $140 million to crooks over the last six-and-a-half years, according to calculations by the FBI. […] Ryuk was the leading ransomware variant, generating roughly $61m between February 2018 and October 2019. Crysis/Dharma was the second most lucrative ransomware, generating $24m between November 2016 and November 2019. Third on the…
Ca: LifeLabs files petition to keep cyberattack report from B.C. privacy commissioner
Andrew Weichel reports: The B.C.-based laboratory testing company that was targeted in a cyberattack last fall is trying to keep the province’s privacy commissioner from accessing a third-party report on the breach. In a petition filed this month in B.C. Supreme Court, LifeLabs argued it shouldn’t have to turn over a report prepared by cybersecurity…
FBI Warned Of Fraudster’s Paradise: Up To 130,000 Hacked Asus Routers On Sale For A Few Dollars
Thomas Brewster reports: The FBI has been tipped off about a novel cybercriminal operation in which a hacker managed not only to breach as many as 130,000 Asus routers, but is also scoring them as to how useful they might be for fraudsters. This hacker’s selling access to those individual Asus devices—most of them based…
PH: ‘Comeleak’ hacker cleared of cybercrime charges in largest hack in Philippine history
Nikka G. Valenzuela reports: A Manila court has dismissed the cybercrime case against an information technology graduate who was charged in connection with the hacking of the Commission of Elections (Comelec) website in 2016—the biggest private data leak in Philippine history. Paul Loui Biteng was cleared of criminal charges after the prosecution failed to prove…
How a Hacker’s Mom Broke Into a Prison—and the Warden’s Computer
Lily Hay Newman reports: John Strand breaks into things for a living. As a penetration tester, he gets hired by organizations to attack their defenses, helping reveal weaknesses before actual bad guys find them. Normally, Strand embarks on these missions himself, or deploys one of his experienced colleagues at Black Hills Information Security. But in…