Category Archives: Department of Justice

Former DIA official allegedly sold secrets to China, including possible Cyber Command information

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A former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) official was caught providing secret military documents to the Chinese government, including what appears to be sensitive information about the locations of U.S. Cyber Command outposts and personnel, according to a newly unsealed Justice Department indictment. The case reveals an increasingly obvious counterintelligence battle between the U.S. and China as the two countries are spending billions on developing advanced cyberwarfare units. The arrest of Ron Rockwell Hansen, a 20-year Army veteran, marks the third publicly visible case in the last year of an American passing secretive documents to Chinese government-linked agents. Former Central Intelligence Agency case officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee was arrested in January for allegedly tipping off Chinese spies to the CIA’s human network inside the authoritarian regime. No longer employed by the government but still familiar with the U.S. intelligence community, Hansen possessed top-secret security clearances for both his civilian and active-duty work. He […]

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Accused Romanian hackers and financial fraudsters extradited to U.S.

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A pair of Romanians accused of an international hacking and identity theft conspiracy were extradited from Romania to the United States on Friday to face 31 criminal charges in federal court. Teodor Laurentiu Costea, 41, and Robert Codrut Dumitrescu, 40, allegedly installed interactive voice response software on vulnerable computers as part of a phone scamming plot pretending to make calls from financial institutions in order to steal account numbers, PINs, and Social Security numbers from victims. The Justice Department’s announcement on the extradition characterize the tactics as “vishing” and “smishing” — phishing by voice and text messages respectively. Costea and Dumitrescu then allegedly sold the information. American officials estimate the losses from the scheme amount to over $18 million. The U.S. government has extradited a number of criminals tied to cybercrime in the past few months. In March, the Justice Department extradited Yevgeniy Nikulin from the Czech Republic. Nikulin was allegedly breaches tied to LinkedIn, Dropbox […]

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Ukrainian accused in cybercrime wave is considering trial in U.S., lawyer says

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A lawyer for an alleged player in one of the largest hacking schemes in history says he is talking with the Department of Justice about the possibility of bringing his client to the U.S. to stand trial. Mikhail Rytikov can’t leave his home country of Ukraine because he would risk becoming the latest Eastern European snatched up by Western law enforcement and charged in cybercrimes. The 30-year-old, who lives in Odessa on the coast of the Black Sea, allegedly participated in criminal schemes by running a profitable “bulletproof hosting” business — servers that police supposedly can’t block or access — known as AbdAllah. Ukraine doesn’t extradite its own citizens, so Rytikov is theoretically safe as long as he stays close to home. But he vehemently denies any wrongdoing, and apparently wants to set the record straight. His lawyer in the U.S., Arkady Bukh, told CyberScoop he is negotiating with the Department of Justice about the possibility of standing trial in […]

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DOJ looks to improve handling of cyberthreats with new task force

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new cybersecurity task force on Tuesday that aims to appraise the way the Department of Justice handles cases that involve the internet. The Cyber-Digital Task Force “will canvass the many ways that the Department is combatting the global cyber threat, and will also identify how federal law enforcement can more effectively accomplish its mission in this vital and evolving area,” a news release said. Sessions said he is creating the task force in order to generate ideas on how to best combat global cyberthreats. “The Internet has given us amazing new tools that help us work, communicate, and participate in our economy, but these tools can also be exploited by criminals, terrorists, and enemy governments,” Sessions said. The deputy attorney general will appoint a senior department official to chair the task force. DOJ declined to provide any more information about the task force, such as […]

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USG Increases Global Intellectual Property Protection Efforts

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There is no denying the intellectual property (IP) of U.S. companies is flying out of the country. It doesn’t matter the sector; if your IP is of use to another, there is a likelihood that someone somewhere is targeting it. Recognizing this is a … Continue reading USG Increases Global Intellectual Property Protection Efforts→

USG Increases Global Intellectual Property Protection Efforts

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There is no denying the intellectual property (IP) of U.S. companies is flying out of the country. It doesn’t matter the sector; if your IP is of use to another, there is a likelihood that someone somewhere is targeting it. Recognizing this is a … Continue reading USG Increases Global Intellectual Property Protection Efforts→

Best of 2018: Project Lakhta: Russian Meddling Gets Russians Indicted

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As we close out 2018, we at Security Boulevard wanted to highlight the five most popular articles of the year. Following is the third in our weeklong series of the Best of 2018. The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced Feb.16 that a Federal gran… Continue reading Best of 2018: Project Lakhta: Russian Meddling Gets Russians Indicted→

Two Russians sentenced to prison for role in hacks against U.S. companies

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Two Russian men were sentenced to prison in the United States on Wednesday after they pleaded guilty to their roles in one of the largest hacking schemes to ever hit the U.S. Vladimir Drinkman, 37, was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in prison and Dmitriy Smilianets, 34, to 51 months and 21 days in prison. The pair were arrested in the Netherlands in 2012 and pleaded guilty in 2015. Prosecutors said there were 17 corporate victims, and three of them alone lost more than $300 million combined. As friends in Moscow, Drinkman and Smilianets “targeted major corporate networks, compromised 160 million credit card numbers and resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses,” according to the Justice Department. “Drinkman and Smilianets not only stole over 160 million credit card numbers from credit card processors, banks, retailers, and other corporate victims, they also used their bounty to fuel a robust underground market for hacked […]

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DOJ indicts leaders of cybercrime ring that allegedly stole $530 million

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The U.S. Department of Justice arrested 13 cybercriminals from 17 countries, including the United States, from the Infraud dark web criminal carding and malware organization, the agency announced Wednesday. The group is charged with defrauding over $530 million from victims and $2.2 billion in losses, with the majority coming from crimes tied to identity fraud. A newly released indictment also names 23 other alleged members of Infraud who remain at large. In terms of scale of money stolen and international reach, the DOJ said Infraud is among the biggest in the world. “The sole purpose of the organization is the large scale acquisition and dissemination of stolen identities, compromised debit and credit cards, personally identifying information, computer malware and other products used to unlawfully enrich members and associates of the Infraud association,” Dale Eliason, U.S. Attorney of Nevada, said in a call with reporters. The alleged Infraud creator is Svyatoslav Bondarenko, […]

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