Alleged Anonymous Sudan leaders charged, prolific gang’s tool disabled

A criminal complaint says the group jeopardized lives via DDoS attack, with 35,000 attacks since the beginning of 2023.

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Former Verizon employee pleads guilty to conspiring to aid Chinese spy agency

Ping Li gave the Chinese government information about the country’s hacking of a major U.S. company and cyber training materials, the DOJ said.

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DOJ sues Georgia Tech over allegedly failing to meet cyber requirements for DOD contracts

The suit relies on a Civil War-era law that DOJ has increasingly turned to for cyber cases.

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Fake Tom Cruise warns of violence at Paris Olympics in pro-Russian info op

The influence campaign includes a phony Netflix documentary and seeks to undermine France and the International Olympic Committee.

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FCC wants rules for ‘most important part of the internet you’ve probably never heard of’

U.S. agencies want to secure the Border Gateway Protocol, but experts question whether their approach could worsen security.

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What Counts as “Good Faith Security Research?”

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently revised its policy on charging violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a 1986 law that remains the primary statute by which federal prosecutors pursue cybercrime cases. The new guidelines state that prosecutors should avoid charging security researchers who operate in “good faith” when finding and reporting vulnerabilities. But legal experts continue to advise researchers to proceed with caution, noting the new guidelines can’t be used as a defense in court, nor are they any kind of shield against civil prosecution. Continue reading What Counts as “Good Faith Security Research?”

DEA Investigating Breach of Law Enforcement Data Portal

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says it is investigating reports that hackers gained unauthorized access to an agency portal that taps into 16 different federal law enforcement databases. KrebsOnSecurity has learned the alleged compromise is tied to a cybercrime and online harassment community that routinely impersonates police and government officials to harvest personal information on their targets. Continue reading DEA Investigating Breach of Law Enforcement Data Portal

DOJ’s Sandworm operation raises questions about how far feds can go to disarm botnets

The Department of Justice and FBI announced they used remote access technology to shut down a Sandworm botnet.

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Final defendant in multimillion-dollar SIM hijacking scheme sentenced to prison

The sixth and final defendant in a gang accused of perpetrating a multimillion-dollar SIM hijacking case was sentenced to 10 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $121,000 in restitution, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday. Garrett Endicott, 22, from Missouri, was connected to a hacking group known as “The Community,” which engaged in a string of SIM hijacking incidents targeting individual users’ cryptocurrency exchange accounts in seven states, according to DOJ. SIM hijacking, or SIM swapping, is a technique where an attacker takes control of a target’s phone number, allowing the attackers to receive text messages and other forms of two-factor authentication protocols that are then used to log into accounts. The gang, known as “The Community,” faced charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Three people who worked for mobile phone providers and helped the gang were also charged with […]

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Two Iranian hackers charged in sprawling effort to interfere in 2020 U.S. election

Two Iranian nationals engaged in a sprawling effort to interfere in the 2020 U.S. elections — including by gaining access to confidential voter information from at least one state election website and attempting to access 11 states in total — according to a federal indictment unsealed Thursday. The defendants, Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi, 24, and Sajjad Kashian, 27, face charges of computer fraud, voter intimidation and transmission of interstate threats. Part of the campaign was allegedly sending emails to Democratic voters purportedly from the Proud Boys, a right wing nationalist hate group, demanding that they vote for former President Trump. That effort was quickly identified by journalists and the U.S. government as a likely Iranian interference effort. The initial reporting on the Proud Boys emails painted a picture of a crude campaign that was almost immediately unmasked. But Thursday’s indictment suggests a much more complex operation. Officials told reporters […]

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