Two individuals were arrested this morning in Manhattan for an alleged conspiracy to launder cryptocurrency that was stolen during the 2016 hack of Bitfinex, a virtual currency exchange, presently valued at approximately $4.5 billion. Thus far, law enforcement has seized over $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency linked to that hack. “Today’s arrests, and the department’s largest…
NetWalker ransomware affiliate sentenced to 80 months in prison
Sergiu Gatlan reports an update to the prosecution of a Canadian NetWalker affiliate. The NetWalker site was seized in January, 2021, and at the same time, the U.S. announced the indictment of Vachon-Desjardins. Although they sought his extradition to the U.S., it appears that he pleaded guilty in Canada to charges stemming from crimes involving…
Cyberattack brings down Vodafone Portugal mobile, voice, and TV services
Catalin Cimpanu reports: Vodafone Portugal said today that a large chunk of its customer data services went offline overnight following “a deliberate and malicious cyberattack intended to cause damage and disruption.” The company’s 4G and 5G mobile networks, along with fixed voice, television, SMS, and voice/digital answering services are still offline following the attack. Read…
Microsoft Details Malware Attacks on Ukrainian Organizations
Lindsey O’Donnell-Welch reports: A known Russia-linked threat group has been targeting an array of organizations in Ukraine – including government, military, law enforcment, non-profit and judiciary entities – in an attempt to steal sensitive data. Microsoft detailed several malware campaigns over the past six months by the Actinium threat group (also known as Gamaredon or…
Microsoft plans to kill malware delivery via Office macros
If you use Word and always feel concerned when you “enable macros” because of the risk of malware, here’s some good news. Sergiu Gatlan reports: Microsoft announced today that it will make it difficult to enable VBA macros downloaded from the Internet in several Microsoft Office apps starting in early April, effectively killing a popular…
‘They pretty much had access to everything’: WFAA reveals the masterminds behind last year’s Dallas ISD cyber breach. And it’s not who you think.
Tanya Eiserer and Jason Trahan report: The email arrived just after midnight on a Sunday last August. Addressed to Dallas Independent School District trustees and other top officials, the anonymous authors said the district had been the victim of a massive cyberbreach. They claimed to have access and downloaded huge amounts of student grade information,…