FBI Concerned About Bitcoin Usage Among Cybercriminals

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has become increasingly concerned over the usage of the mostly-anonymous payment network Bitcoin by hackers and cybercriminals, according to an unclassified report obtained by Wired this week. The report, “Bitcoin Virtual Currency: Unique Features Present...

DHS Appeals to Users Still Infected with DNSChanger

The Department of Homeland Security is the latest agency to appeal to U.S. consumers to check their computers for signs of DNSChanger malware before they are knocked offline in a couple of months. Rand Beers, undersecretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, implored users to...

Travelers Cautioned When Using Hotel Internet Connections Abroad

Travelers abroad should be on alert for malware masquerading as a software update when they attempt to connect to the Internet from their hotel rooms. A warning issued by the Internet Crime Complaint Center says the FBI and other government agencies recently noticed malware that targets guests...

DDoS Attack Knocks SOCA Website Offline

The Website of the United Kingdom’s Serious Online Crime Agency SOCA remains offline this morning following a distributed denial of service DDoS attack. A spokesperson from SOCA told the BBC that they took their website offline at 22:30 GMT on Wednesday but insisted that the outage did not presen...

FBI Targets An Austrian Remailer in Pitt Bomb Threat Case

FBI investigators have broadened their probe into emailed bomb threats at the University of Pittsburgh to an anonymous remailer in Austria. Earlier this week, at the request of U.S. authorities, police visited Christian Mock, an Austrian provider who offers anonymous remailing services. Authoriti...

DNSChanger – Cleaning Up 4 Million Infected Hosts

By Kurt Baumgartner The FBI’s “Operation Ghost Click” announcement in Nov 2011, involving the Rove Digital botnet delayed cleanup efforts that we previously discussed, continues to haunt both the internet networks and the mass media. A Forbes article and a Times article yesterday brought the...

Authorities Renew Campaign to Disinfect Computers Before July 9

With a deadline to pull surrogate servers extended, the FBI has launched a new campaign to prevent up to 350,000 computer users from losing Internet access this summer – including those tied to Fortune 500 companies and government agencies like NASA. Over the weekend, news media outlets began...

FBI Investigating Election Tampering Following Arrest of CSUSM Student

The FBI is investigating whether federal law violations took place following allegations a candidate for student body president at California State University San Marcos stole some 700 student identities in an attempt to alter election results. Third-year business student Mark Weaver was arrested...

Forensic FOCA - Power of Metadata in digital forensics

Forensic FOCA - Power of Metadata in digital forensics Most of the e ort in today's digital forensics community lies in the retrieval and analysis of existing information from computing systems. Metadata is data about data. Metadata plays a number of important roles in computer forensics. It can...

FBI track Anonymous hacker using his girlfriend's boobs

FBI track Anonymous hacker using his girlfriend's boobs The FBI swooped on Higinio O Ochoa III after he posted the snap, which included a gloating message to his online victims.He took the picture on his iPhone and posted it on Twitter without realising it contained GPS data pointing directly to...

Utah Medicaid Hack Now Affecting Half a Million, 280K SSNs Stolen

The number of victims involved in the recent Utah Department of Health hack has climbed once again with the state health agency announcing yesterday that the breach has affected approximately 500,000 Utah residents, while an additional 280,000 residents had their Social Security numbers stolen. T...

CabinCr3w Hacker Arrested by FBI

Federal authorities have arrested a Texas man accused of working for the hacking group CabinCr3w, a group that once targeted Goldman Sachs CEO LLoyd Blankfein. Higinio Ochoa, a resident of Texas, was taken into custody by FBI agents on March 20 and charged with unauthorized access to a protected...

Lulzsec 'Ryan Cleary' Again in Jail for breaking his bail conditions

Lulzsec Ryan Cleary Again in Jail for breaking his bail conditions The lawyer for a 19-year-old Briton Ryan Cleary suspected of links to the hacking group Lulz Security says her client's back behind bars for breaching his bail conditions. Mr Cleary, is accused of being a member of the hacktivist...

FBI Cyber Chief Says U.S. Losing War Against Hackers

FBI Cyber Chief Says U.S. Losing War Against Hackers FBI is struggling to combat cyberattacks by hackers. "We're not winning," FBI executive assistant director Shawn Henry said. Four top government cybersecurity officials have basically come out to say America is getting her hiney kicked in...

Fortune Favors the Bold? Man Steals Microsoft Founder's Identity, Credit Card

When one Pennsylvanian man couldn’t foot his bills, he opted to steal the identity of someone that could – one of the world’s richest men, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Paul Allen. An AWOL solider from Pittsburgh swiped Allen’s Citibank credit card account information earlier this year to...

Wired: Courts Back Government After Tech Company Challenges National Security Letter Gag Rule

Wired’s ThreatLevel blog is digging into the story of technology companies pushing back against the government’s use of super-secret National Security Letters NSLs to collect information on “persons of interest” to the FBI earlier this year. According to the Wired account, an unnamed company – ve...

FBI actually leak Stratfor e-mails just to bust Julian Assange?

FBI actually leak Stratfor e-mails just to bust Julian Assange? Internal emails disclosed by Anonymous and WikiLeaks suggest that Stratfor, a private intelligence firm working with the U.S. Justice Department. But The FBI turned a computer hacker to build its case against a group of people it...

Can Google Be Forced By the FBI to Unlock Users' Phones?

Those multi-gesture passcode locks on Android phones that give users and their spouses fits apparently present quite a challenge for the FBI as well. Frustrated by a swipe passcode on the seized phone of an alleged gang leader, FBI officials have requested a search warrant that would force Google...

FBI charge Anonymous for stealing CC worth $700000 in Stratfor attack

FBI charge Anonymous for stealing CC worth $700000 in Stratfor attack The FBI has revealed that there were $700,000 worth of fraudulent credit card charges after hacktivist group Anonymous stole nearly 200 gigabytes of data, including credit card numbers, from security firm Stratfor. Anonymous...

NYT Profiles LulzSec's Sabu As Talented Hacker With Star-Crossed Life

Hector Xavier Monsegur or “Sabu,” de facto ringleader of the notorious Anonymous Internet Collective, was not merely a talented hacker. He was also something of a Robin Hood of the East Side projects and a hard-partying nuisance to his neighbors, a report by the New Yok Times claims. A report fin...