Collaborate Disseminate
A former IT engineer is facing federal charges in the United States after his former employer found it had been locked out of its computer systems and received a demand for $750,000.
Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog. Continue reading IT worker charged over $750,000 cyber extortion plot against former employer
MPs aren’t just getting excited about an upcoming election, but also the fruity WhatsApp messages they’re receiving, can we trust AI with our health, and who on earth is pretending to be a producer for the Drew Barrymore TV show?
All this and much m… Continue reading Smashing Security podcast #367: WhatsApp at Westminster, unhealthy AI, and Drew Barrymore
Hundreds of pet owners across the UK have reported that they have received blackmail threats from scammers who claim to have found their lost pooches and missing moggies.
Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog. Continue reading Heartless scammers prey on hundreds of lost pet owners, demanding ransoms or else…
Stealing private keys is like getting hold of a medieval monarch’s personal signet ring… you get to put an official seal on treasonous material. Continue reading Attention gamers! Motherboard maker MSI admits to breach, issues “rogue firmware” alert
A Ukrainian video game developer has revealed that a hacker has leaked development material stolen from the company’s systems, and is threatening to release tens of gigabytes more if their unorthodox ransom demands are not met. Continue reading STALKER 2 hacker demands Ukrainian game developer reinstates Russian language support, or else…
Members of the LGBTQ+ community have been warned to be on their guard against extortionists who may attempt to prey on them via online dating apps such as Grindr and Feeld.
Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog. Continue reading FTC warns LGBTQ+ community of extortion scams targeting them on dating apps
I received an email containing blackmail about videos that the hacker said he recorded. He said that he recorded the user of the laptop masturbating and he is asking for money to delete them otherwise he’ll send it to the user’s family.
Fi… Continue reading Sextorsion then Trojan
Good article on the evolution of ransomware:
Though some researchers say that the scale and severity of ransomware attacks crossed a bright line in 2020, others describe this year as simply the next step in a gradual and, unfortunately, predictable devolution. After years spent honing their techniques, attackers are growing bolder. They’ve begun to incorporate other types of extortion like blackmail into their arsenals, by exfiltrating an organization’s data and then threatening to release it if the victim doesn’t pay an additional fee. Most significantly, ransomware attackers have transitioned from a model in which they hit lots of individuals and accumulated many small ransom payments to one where they carefully plan attacks against a …
Goontact lures users of illicit sites through Telegram and other secure messaging apps and steals their information for future fraudulent use. Continue reading Sextortionist Campaign Targets iOS, Android Users with New Spyware
The Finnish psychotherapy clinic Vastaamo was the victim of a data breach and theft. The criminals tried extorting money from the clinic. When that failed, they started extorting money from the patients:
Neither the company nor Finnish investigators have released many details about the nature of the breach, but reports say the attackers initially sought a payment of about 450,000 euros to protect about 40,000 patient records. The company reportedly did not pay up. Given the scale of the attack and the sensitive nature of the stolen data, the case has become a national story in Finland. Globally, attacks on health care organizations have escalated as cybercriminals look for higher-value targets…