LockBit takedown: Infrastructure disrupted, criminals arrested, decryption keys recovered

In the wake of yesterday’s surprise law enforcement takeover of LockBit’s leak site, the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) and Europol have shared more information about the extent of the takedown. “Today, after infiltrating the group’s … Continue reading LockBit takedown: Infrastructure disrupted, criminals arrested, decryption keys recovered

UK Sets Up Fake Booter Sites To Muddy DDoS Market

The United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has been busy setting up phony DDoS-for-hire websites that seek to collect information on users, remind them that launching DDoS attacks is illegal, and generally increase the level of paranoia for people looking to hire such services.  Continue reading UK Sets Up Fake Booter Sites To Muddy DDoS Market

RaidForums Gets Raided, Alleged Admin Arrested

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said today it seized the website and user database for RaidForums, an extremely popular English-language cybercrime forum that sold access to more than 10 billion consumer records stolen in some of the world’s largest data breaches since 2015. The DOJ also charged the alleged administrator of RaidForums — 21-year-old Diogo Santos Coelho, of Portugal — with six criminal counts, including conspiracy, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. Continue reading RaidForums Gets Raided, Alleged Admin Arrested

U.K. Arrest in ‘SMS Bandits’ Phishing Service

Authorities in the United Kingdom have arrested a 20-year-old man for allegedly operating an online service for sending high-volume phishing campaigns via mobile text messages. The service, marketed in the underground under the name “SMS Bandits,” has been responsible for blasting out huge volumes of phishing lures spoofing everything from COVID-19 pandemic relief efforts to PayPal, telecommunications providers and tax revenue agencies. Continue reading U.K. Arrest in ‘SMS Bandits’ Phishing Service

Who is Tech Investor John Bernard?

John Bernard, the subject of a story here last week about a self-proclaimed millionaire investor who has bilked countless tech startups, appears to be a pseudonym for John Clifton Davies, a U.K. man who absconded from justice before being convicted on multiple counts of fraud in 2015. Prior to his conviction, Davies served 16 months in jail before being cleared of murdering his wife on their honeymoon in India. Continue reading Who is Tech Investor John Bernard?

New Charges, Sentencing in Satori IoT Botnet Conspiracy

The U.S. Justice Department today criminally charged a Canadian and a Northern Ireland man for allegedly conspiring to build multiple botnets that enslaved hundreds of thousands of routers and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices for use in large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. In addition, a defendant in the United States was sentenced to drug treatment and 18 months community confinement for his admitted role in the conspiracy. Continue reading New Charges, Sentencing in Satori IoT Botnet Conspiracy

UK Ad Campaign Seeks to Deter Cybercrime

The United Kingdom’s anti-cybercrime agency is running online ads aimed at young people who search the Web for services that enable computer crimes, specifically trojan horse programs and DDoS-for-hire services. The ad campaign follows a similar initia… Continue reading UK Ad Campaign Seeks to Deter Cybercrime

Council returns to using pen and paper after cyberattack

Ten days after a suspected ransomware attack, residents of the English borough of Redcar and Cleveland must be starting to wonder when their Council’s IT systems will return. Continue reading Council returns to using pen and paper after cyberattack