Author Archives: BrianKrebs

LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps

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The home appliance giant LG Electronics USA said this week it plans to suspend any apps built for its smart TVs that turn one’s television into an always-on residential proxy node. The move comes less than a month after researchers found that more than 42 percent of games and other apps available for download on LG’s webOS store allow unknown third-parties to route their Internet traffic through a user’s TV. Continue reading LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps→

Microsoft Patches a Record 570 Security Flaws

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Microsoft Corp. today released software updates to plug at least 570 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, almost triple the number of vulnerabilities the software giant fixed in its record-smashing Patch Tuesday release last month. Microsoft attributed the burgeoning patch counts to vulnerability discoveries aided by artificial intelligence. Continue reading Microsoft Patches a Record 570 Security Flaws→

Lessons Learned from CISA’s Recent GitHub Leak

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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a postmortem on a data leak in which a contractor published dozens of internal CISA credentials — including AWS Govcloud keys — in a public GitHub repository for almost six months before being notified by KrebsOnSecurity. Experts say the gaps identified in the agency’s initial response provide important lessons that all security teams should absorb. Continue reading Lessons Learned from CISA’s Recent GitHub Leak→

Felons, Fraudsters Flog Offensive Cybersecurity Startup

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A cybersecurity startup dangling millions of dollars to acquire zero-day security vulnerabilities in popular software is run by a pair of far-right conspiracy theorists and convicted felons whose most recent ventures included fake intelligence companies and a now-defunct AI-based lobbying platform they operated under assumed names. Continue reading Felons, Fraudsters Flog Offensive Cybersecurity Startup→

FBI Seizes NetNut Proxy Platform, Popa Botnet

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said today it worked with industry partners to seize hundreds of domains associated with NetNut, a sprawling residential proxy service operated by the publicly-traded Israeli company Alarum Technologies [NASDAQ: ALAR]. The action comes roughly two weeks after KrebsOnSecurity published findings from multiple security firms connecting NetNut to the Popa botnet, a collection of at least two million devices that have been compromised by malicious software with little or no consent from victims. Continue reading FBI Seizes NetNut Proxy Platform, Popa Botnet→

Scattered Spider Hackers Plead Guilty on Day 1 of Trial

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Two men pleaded guilty in the United Kingdom this week to criminal charges stemming from an August 2024 cyberattack that crippled Transport for London, the entity responsible for the public transport network in the Greater London area. The duo were key members of a prolific cybercrime group known as Scattered Spider, and their guilty pleas came on the first day of what was expected to be a six-week trial. Continue reading Scattered Spider Hackers Plead Guilty on Day 1 of Trial→

‘Popa’ Botnet Linked to Publicly-Traded Israeli Firm

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For the past four years, a sprawling Android-based botnet called Popa has forced millions of consumer TV boxes to relay Internet traffic linked to advertising fraud, account takeovers, and mass data-scraping efforts. This week, researchers from multiple security firms concluded that the Popa botnet is linked to NetNut, a “residential proxy” provider operated by the publicly-traded Israeli firm Alarum Technologies Ltd [NASDAQ: ALAR]. Continue reading ‘Popa’ Botnet Linked to Publicly-Traded Israeli Firm→

Who Runs the Ransomware Group ‘The Gentlemen?’

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A cybercrime group known as The Gentlemen has emerged as the second most active ransomware gang by victim count, rapidly attracting a talented pool of hackers through an aggressive recruitment strategy that promises affiliates 90 percent of any ransom paid by victims. This post examines clues pointing to a real life identity for the administrator of The Gentlemen ransomware group. Continue reading Who Runs the Ransomware Group ‘The Gentlemen?’→

A Record-Breaking Patch Tuesday for June 2026

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Microsoft today released software updates to plug nearly 200 security holes across its Windows operating systems and supported software, a record number of fixes for the company’s monthly Patch Tuesday cycle. Nearly three dozen of those bugs earned Microsoft’s most dire “critical” rating, and exploit code for at least three of the weaknesses is now publicly available. Continue reading A Record-Breaking Patch Tuesday for June 2026→

Hackers Used Meta’s AI Support Bot to Seize Instagram Accounts

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The Instagram accounts for the Obama White House and the Chief Master Sergeant of the U.S. Space Force were briefly defaced with pro-Iranian images and messages over the weekend, after instructions began circulating on Telegram showing how to trick Meta’s “AI support assistant” bot into resetting account passwords. Continue reading Hackers Used Meta’s AI Support Bot to Seize Instagram Accounts→