Scary Fraud Ensues When ID Theft & Usury Collide

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2022 19:48:40 +0000

What’s worse than finding out that identity thieves took out a 546 percent interest payday loan in your name? How about a 900 percent interest loan? Or how about not learning of the fraudulent loan until it gets handed off to collection agents? One reader’s nightmare experience spotlights what can happen when ID thieves and hackers start targeting online payday lenders.

Read more

Crime Shop Sells Hacked Logins to Other Crime Shops

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2022 17:11:36 +0000

Up for the “Most Meta Cybercrime Offering” award this year is Accountz Club, a new cybercrime store that sells access to purloined accounts at services built for cybercriminals, including shops peddling stolen payment cards and identities, spamming tools, email and phone bombing services, and those selling authentication cookies for a slew of popular websites.

Read more

IRS Will Soon Require Selfies for Online Access

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2022 17:15:06 +0000

If you created an online account to manage your tax records with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), those login credentials will cease to work later this year. The agency says that by the summer of 2022, the only way to log in to irs.gov will be through ID.me, an online identity verification service that requires applicants to submit copies of bills and identity documents, as well as a live video feed of their faces via a mobile device.

Read more

At Request of U.S., Russia Rounds Up 14 REvil Ransomware Affiliates

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2022 22:41:34 +0000

The Russian government said today it arrested 14 people accused of working for “REvil,” a particularly aggressive ransomware group that has extorted hundreds of millions of dollars from victim organizations. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said the actions were taken in response to a request from U.S. officials, but many experts believe the crackdown is part of an effort to reduce tensions over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to station 100,000 troops along the nation’s border with Ukraine.

Read more

Who is the Network Access Broker ‘Wazawaka?’

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2022 05:17:31 +0000

In a great many ransomware attacks, the criminals who pillage the victim’s network are not the same crooks who gained the initial access to the victim organization. More commonly, the infected PC or stolen VPN credentials the gang used to break in were purchased from a cybercriminal middleman known as an initial access broker. This post examines some of the clues left behind by Wazawaka, the handle chosen by a major access broker in the Russian-speaking cybercrime scene.

Read more

‘Wormable’ Flaw Leads January 2022 Patch Tuesday

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2022 22:18:55 +0000

Microsoft today released updates to plug nearly 120 security holes in Windows and supported software. Six of the vulnerabilities were publicly detailed already, potentially giving attackers a head start in figuring out how to exploit them in unpatched systems. More concerning, Microsoft warns that one of the flaws fixed this month is “wormable,” meaning no human interaction would be required for an attack to spread from one vulnerable Windows box to another.

Read more

500M Avira Antivirus Users Introduced to Cryptomining

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2022 18:05:14 +0000

Many readers were surprised to learn recently that the popular Norton 360 antivirus suite now ships with a program which lets customers make money mining virtual currency. But Norton 360 isn’t alone in this dubious endeavor: Avira antivirus — which has built a base of 500 million users worldwide largely by making the product free — was recently bought by the same company that owns Norton 360 and is introducing its customers to a service called Avira Crypto.

Read more

Norton 360 Now Comes With a Cryptominer

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2022 17:26:10 +0000

Norton 360, one of the most popular antivirus products on the market today, has installed a cryptocurrency mining program on its customers’ computers. Norton’s parent firm says the cloud-based service that activates the program and enables customers to profit from the scheme — in which the company keeps 15 percent of any currencies mined — is “opt-in,” meaning users have to agree to enable it. But many Norton users complain the mining program is difficult to remove, and reactions from longtime customers have ranged from unease and disbelief to, “Dude, where’s my crypto?”

Read more

Coronavirus Widens the Money Mule Pool

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 22:11:46 +0000

With many people being laid off or working from home thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, cybercrooks are almost certain to have more than their usual share of recruitable “money mules” — people who get roped into money laundering schemes under the pretense of a work-at-home job offer. Here’s the story of one upstart mule factory that spoofs a major nonprofit and tells new employees they’ll be collecting and transmitting donations for an international “Coronavirus Relief Fund.”

Read more

The Web’s Bot Containment Unit Needs Your Help

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2020 12:55:01 +0000

Anyone who’s seen the 1984 hit movie Ghostbusters likely recalls the pivotal scene where a government bureaucrat orders the shutdown of the ghost containment unit, effectively unleashing a pent-up phantom menace on New York City. Now, something similar is in danger of happening in cyberspace: Shadowserver.org, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that works to help Internet service providers (ISPs) identify and quarantine malware infections and botnets, has lost its longtime primary source of funding.

Read more