Author Archives: BrianKrebs

Payment Processing Giant TSYS: Ransomware Incident “Immaterial” to Company

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Payment card processing giant TSYS suffered a ransomware attack earlier this month. Since then reams of data stolen from the company have been posted online, with the attackers promising to publish more in the coming days. But the company says the malware did not jeopardize card data, and that the incident was limited to administrative areas of its business. Continue reading Payment Processing Giant TSYS: Ransomware Incident “Immaterial” to Company→

Patch Tuesday, Good Riddance 2020 Edition

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Microsoft today issued its final batch of security updates for Windows PCs in 2020, ending the year with a relatively light patch load. Nine of the 58 security vulnerabilities addressed this month earned Microsoft’s most-dire “critical” label, meaning they can be abused by malware or miscreants to seize remote control over PCs without any help from users. Continue reading Patch Tuesday, Good Riddance 2020 Edition→

IRS to Make ID Protection PIN Open to All

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The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said this week that beginning in 2021 it will allow all taxpayers to apply for an identity protection personal identification number (IP PIN), a single-use code designed to block identity thieves from falsely claiming a tax refund in your name. Currently, IP PINs are issued only to those who fill out an ID theft affidavit, or to taxpayers who’ve experienced tax refund fraud in previous years. Continue reading IRS to Make ID Protection PIN Open to All→

Bomb Threat, DDoS Purveyor Gets Eight Years

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A 22-year-old North Carolina man has been sentenced to nearly eight years in prison for conducting bomb threats against thousands of schools in the U.S. and United Kingdom, launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and for possessing sexually explicit images of minors. Continue reading Bomb Threat, DDoS Purveyor Gets Eight Years→

GoDaddy Employees Used in Attacks on Multiple Cryptocurrency Services

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Fraudsters redirected email and web traffic destined for several cryptocurrency trading platforms over the past week. The attacks were facilitated by scams targeting employees at GoDaddy, the world’s largest domain name registrar, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. Continue reading GoDaddy Employees Used in Attacks on Multiple Cryptocurrency Services→

Convicted SIM Swapper Gets 3 Years in Jail

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A 21-year-old Irishman who pleaded guilty to charges of helping to steal millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies from victims has been sentenced to just under three years in prison. The defendant is part of an alleged conspiracy involving at least eight others in the United States who stand accused of theft via SIM swapping, a […] Continue reading Convicted SIM Swapper Gets 3 Years in Jail→

Trump Fires Security Chief Christopher Krebs

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President Trump on Tuesday fired his top election security official Christopher Krebs (no relation). The dismissal came via Twitter two weeks to the day after Trump lost an election he baselessly claims was stolen by widespread voting fraud. Continue reading Trump Fires Security Chief Christopher Krebs→

Be Very Sparing in Allowing Site Notifications

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An increasing number of websites are asking visitors to approve “notifications,” browser modifications that periodically display messages on the user’s mobile or desktop device. In many cases these notifications are benign, but several dodgy firms are paying site owners to install their notification scripts and then selling that communications pathway to scammers and online hucksters. Continue reading Be Very Sparing in Allowing Site Notifications→

Patch Tuesday, November 2020 Edition

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Adobe and Microsoft each issued a bevy of updates today to plug critical security holes in their software. Microsoft’s release includes fixes for 112 separate flaws, including one zero-day vulnerability that is already being exploited to attack Windows users. Microsoft also is taking flak for changing its security advisories and limiting the amount of information disclosed about each bug. Continue reading Patch Tuesday, November 2020 Edition→