Tech Support Scams: What are They and How do I Stay Safe?

If you read this blog regularly you’re no doubt aware that cyber-criminals are a determined bunch, with a large range of tools and tactics at their disposal to rob you of your identity and hard-earned cash. Tech support scams TSS are an increasingly popular way for them to do just this. In 2017,...

Serial Swatter and Stalker Mir Islam Arrested for Allegedly Dumping Body in River

A 22-year-old man convicted of cyberstalking and carrying out numerous bomb threats and swatting attacks -- including a 2013 swatting incident at my home -- was arrested Sunday morning in the Philippines after allegedly helping his best friend dump the body of a housemate into a local river...

Authorities seize 15 popular DDoS-for-hire websites

By Waqas Authorities have seized and shut down 15 popular DDoS-for-hire websites used by cybercriminals for revenge and DDoS distributed denial of service attacks on private individuals as well as businesses including online gaming giants, email service providers and hosting sites. The operation...

FBI Denies Service to 15 DDoS-for-Hire Sites, Charges Operators

The Justice Department has taken 15 internet domains associated with DDoS-for-hire services offline, and has filed charges against three defendants who allegedly ran them. DDoS for hire or DDoS-as-a-service operations make it simple for any layperson to carry out DDoS attacks, flooding targets wi...

FBI Seizes 15 DDoS-For-Hire Websites, 3 Operators Charged

The FBI just saved the Christmas. The U.S. Justice Department announced earlier today that the FBI has seized domains of 15 "DDoS-for-hire" websites and charged three individuals running some of these services. DDoS-for-hire, or "Booter" or "Stresser," services rent out access to a network of...

US Indicts Two Chinese Government Hackers Over Global Hacking Campaign

The US Department of Justice on Thursday charged two Chinese hackers associated with the Chinese government for hacking numerous companies and government agencies in a dozen countries. The Chinese nationals, Zhu Hua known online as Afwar, CVNX, Alayos and Godkiller and Zhang Shilong known online ...

Save the Children Federation Duped in $1M Scam

Hackers scammed the Save the Children Federation out of almost $1 million in a business email compromise BEC scam. Save the Children is a well-known U.S.-based non-profit group that offers charity services like fundraising and sponsorships. According to the company’s 2017 income tax returns,...

Fake Bomb Threat Emails Demanding Bitcoins Sparked Chaos Across US, Canada

"Pay $20,000 worth of bitcoin, or a bomb will detonate in your building" A massive number of businesses, schools, government offices and individuals across the US, New Zealand and Canada on Thursday received bomb threats via emails that caused nationwide chaos, forcing widespread evacuations and...

Secure Critical Infrastructure Top of Mind for U.S.

When it comes to cyber-threats and defense, the U.S. government says that critical infrastructure threats are a growing concern. Rob Joyce, senior advisor of cybersecurity strategy for the National Security Agency NSA, said that while attacks targeting the systems that power the manufacturing,...

Bomb Threats Emailed Around the World

The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center NCCIC, part of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA, is aware of a worldwide email campaign targeting businesses and organizations with bomb threats. The emails claim that a device will detonate unless a ransom ...

A week in security (November 26 – December 2)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we took a look at our cybersecurity predictions for 2019, we explained why Malwarebytes participated in AV testing and how we took part in an joint take down of massive ad fraud botnets, warned that ESTA registration websites still lurk in paid ads on Google,...

SamSam Ransomware

Summary The Department of Homeland Security DHS National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center NCCIC and the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI are issuing this activity alert to inform computer network defenders about SamSam ransomware, also known as MSIL/Samas.A. Specifically, th...

SamSam Ransomware

The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have identified cyber threat actors using SamSam ransomware—also known as MSIL/SAMAS.A—to target industries in the United States and worldwide. NCCIC encourages users and administrators to review Alert AA18-337A: SamSam...

FBI Takes Down a Massive Advertising Fraud Ring

The FBI announced that it dismantled a large Internet advertising fraud network, and arrested eight people: A 13-count indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Aleksandr Zhukov, Boris Timokhin, Mikhail Andreev, Denis Avdeev, Dmitry Novikov, Sergey Ovsyannikov, Aleksandr...

FBI Sinkholes $38M Global Ad Fraud Operation

The FBI has taken control of 31 web domains in a widespread takedown of a multi-year, global ad fraud campaign, believed to have stolen at least $38 million, partly via a botnet strategy. In addition, eight defendants face a 13-count indictment from a federal court in Brooklyn in the case. The...

U.S Charges Two Iranian Hackers for SamSam Ransomware Attacks

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday charges against two Iranian nationals for their involvement in creating and deploying the notorious SamSam ransomware. The alleged hackers, Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah, 27, have been charged on several counts of computer hackin...

FBI & Google shut down largest-ever Ad fraud scheme ‘3VE’

By Waqas 8 suspects behind 3VE have also been identified. Last year in August, the Federal Bureau of Investigation organized a secret meet-up between cybersecurity and digital advertising experts in its Manhattan federal building. This included Google and nearly 20 tech firms while there were...

FBI Shuts Down Multimillion Dollar – 3ve – Ad Fraud Operation

Google, the FBI, ad-fraud fighting company WhiteOps and a collection of cyber security companies worked together to shut down one of the largest and most sophisticated digital ad-fraud schemes that infected over 1.7 million computers to generate fake clicks used to defraud online advertisers for...

The PCLOB Needs a Director

The US Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is looking for a director. Among other things, this board has some oversight role over the NSA. More precisely, it can examine what any executive-branch agency is doing about counterterrorism. So it can examine the program of TSA watchlists, NSA...

Holiday Scams and Malware Campaigns

As the holidays approach, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA reminds users to be aware of seasonal scams and malware campaigns. Users should be cautious of unsolicited emails that contain malicious links or attachments with malware, advertisements infected with malware, and...