Category Archives: Theft

Husband and Wife Plead Guilty to Money Laundering Conspiracy Involving the Hack and Theft of Billions in Cryptocurrency

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There’s an update to the case involving the arrest of a married couple charged with laundering $4.5 billion in cryptocurrency stolen from Bitifinex in 2016. Ilya Lichtenstein, 35, and Heather Morgan, 33, from New York City pleaded guilty today to… Continue reading Husband and Wife Plead Guilty to Money Laundering Conspiracy Involving the Hack and Theft of Billions in Cryptocurrency→

Abus CombiFlex TravelGuard bike lock is set to hit your local coffee shop

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While there’s no substitute for a big, burly, ultra-secure bike lock in high-theft-risk scenarios, sometimes a lighter, more compact lock is a bit more practical. That’s where the Abus CombiFlex TravelGuard is designed to come in.Continue ReadingCatego… Continue reading Abus CombiFlex TravelGuard bike lock is set to hit your local coffee shop→

Bypassing a Theft Threat Model

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Thieves cut through the wall of a coffee shop to get to an Apple store, bypassing the alarms in the process.

I wrote about this kind of thing in 2000, in Secrets and Lies (page 318):

My favorite example is a band of California art thieves that would break into people’s houses by cutting a hole in their walls with a chainsaw. The attacker completely bypassed the threat model of the defender. The countermeasures that the homeowner put in place were door and window alarms; they didn’t make a difference to this attack.

The article says they took half a million dollars worth of iPhones. I don’t understand iPhone device security, but don’t they have a system of denying stolen phones access to the network?…

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Fines as a Security System

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Tile has an interesting security solution to make its tracking tags harder to use for stalking:

The Anti-Theft Mode feature will make the devices invisible to Scan and Secure, the company’s in-app feature that lets you know if any nearby Tiles are following you. But to activate the new Anti-Theft Mode, the Tile owner will have to verify their real identity with a government-issued ID, submit a biometric scan that helps root out fake IDs, agree to let Tile share their information with law enforcement and agree to be subject to a $1 million penalty if convicted in a court of law of using Tile for criminal activity. So although it technically makes the device easier for stalkers to use Tiles silently, it makes the penalty of doing so high enough to (at least in theory) deter them from trying…

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Hacking Automobile Keyless Entry Systems

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Suspected members of a European car-theft ring have been arrested:

The criminals targeted vehicles with keyless entry and start systems, exploiting the technology to get into the car and drive away.

As a result of a coordinated action carried out on 10 October in the three countries involved, 31 suspects were arrested. A total of 22 locations were searched, and over EUR 1 098 500 in criminal assets seized.

The criminals targeted keyless vehicles from two French car manufacturers. A fraudulent tool—marketed as an automotive diagnostic solution, was used to replace the original software of the vehicles, allowing the doors to be opened and the ignition to be started without the actual key fob…

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