Calif. Man Pleads Guilty in Fatal Swatting Case, Faces 20+ Years in Prison

A California man who pleaded guilty Tuesday to causing dozens of swatting attacks -- including a deadly incident in Kansas last year -- now faces 20 or more years in prison. Tyler Raj Barriss, in an undated selfie. Tyler Barriss, 25, went by the nickname SWAuTistic on Twitter, and reveled in...

Sextortion emails: They’re probably not watching you

Back in July, Krebs on Security reported on a rather novel scam, where the threat actor would use credentials from old data dumps to suggest that they had directly hacked the victim and obtained the victim's presumably sensitive browser history. Stolen credentials aside, sex-based extortion scams...

LuminosityLink Hacking Tool Author Gets 30-Months Prison Sentence

A 21-year-old Kentucky man who previously pleaded guilty to developing, marketing, and selling an infamous remote access trojan RAT called LuminosityLink has now been sentenced to 30 months in prison. According to a press release published Monday by U.S. Attorney's Office, Colton Grubbs, who used...

FBI Releases Article on Defending Against Payroll Phishing Scams

The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI has released an article on building a digital defense against phishing scams targeting electronically deposited paychecks. In these schemes, scammers use phishing emails to direct employees to fraudulent websites and collect their work credentials. Scammers...

30 Million Facebook Accounts Were Hacked: Check If You're One of Them

Late last month Facebook announced its worst-ever security breach that allowed an unknown group of hackers to steal secret access tokens for millions of accounts by taking advantage of a flaw in the 'View As' feature. At the time of the initial disclosure, Facebook estimated that the number of...

30M Facebook breach; includes users phone numbers and location data

By Waqas FBI has asked Facebook not to discuss who may be behind this attack. On September 28th, 2018 the social media giant Facebook announced that it suffered a massive data breach in which hackers stole access tokens of millions of accounts after exploiting a critical vulnerability in its "Vie...

Silk Road Admin Pleads Guilty – Could Face Up to 20 Years in Prison

An Irish national who helped run the now-defunct dark web marketplace Silk Road pleaded guilty on Friday to drug trafficking charges that carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Gary Davis, also known as Libertas, was one of the site administrators and forum moderators for Silk Road,...

16-Year-Old Boy Who Hacked Apple's Private Systems Gets No Jail Time

An Australian teenager who pleaded guilty to break into Apple's private systems multiple times over several months and download some 90GB of secure files has avoided conviction and will not serve time in prison. An Australian Children's Court has given the now 19-year-old adult defendant, who was...

Hackers behind Mirai botnet to avoid jail for working with the FBI

By Waqas Mirai has been known as one of the most powerful botnets comprised of millions of hacked Internet of Things IoT devices including routers, digital video recorders DVRs and security cameras. Mirai was also used by hackers to carry out one of the largest DDoS attacks on the servers of DynD...

Mirai Masterminds Helping FBI Snuff Out Cybercrime

The three masterminds behind Mirai – the infamous botnet known for taking down internet services in a 2016 DDoS attack – will work with the FBI in future cybercrime investigations as part of their sentencing for creating and operating the botnet. The three hackers, Paras Jha 22, of New Jersey,...

Mirai Botnet Authors Avoid Jail Time

Citing "extraordinary cooperation" with the government, a court in Alaska on Tuesday sentenced three men to probation, community service and fines for their admitted roles in authoring and using "Mirai," a potent malware strain used in countless attacks designed to knock Web sites offline --...

Mirai Botnet Creators Helping FBI Fight Cybercrime to Stay Out of Jail

Three young hackers who were sentenced late last year for creating and spreading the notorious Mirai botnet are now helping the FBI to investigate other "complex" cybercrime cases in return to avoid their lengthy prison terms. Paras Jha, 21 from New Jersey, Josiah White, 20 from Washington, and...

The Mirai Botnet Architects Are Now Fighting Crime With the FBI

In 2016, three friends created a botnet that nearly broke the internet. Now, they're helping the feds catch cybercriminals of all stripes...

Back to Basics: Why We Need to Encourage More Secure IoT Development

The Internet of Things IoT is radically reshaping the way we live and work. Before our very eyes, organizations are becoming more agile, efficient and cost effective to run, all while consumers marvel at the wonders of the smart home, fitness trackers and connected cars. There’s just one major...

FTC Issues Alert on Bitcoin Blackmail Scams

The Federal Trade Commission has released an alert on Bitcoin blackmail scams. In these schemes, scammers threaten victims with public disclosure of their "secret" unless they send a payment in Bitcoin. NCCIC encourages users and administrators to refer to the FTC Alert and a related FBI press...

Indian Bank Hit in $13.5M Cyberheist After FBI ATM Cashout Warning

On Sunday, Aug. 12, KrebsOnSecurity carried an exclusive: The FBI was warning banks about an imminent "ATM cashout" scheme about to unfold across the globe, thanks to a data breach at an unknown financial institution. On Aug. 14, a bank in India disclosed hackers had broken into its servers,...

AT&T Faces $224M Legal Challenge Over SIM-Jacking Rings

Cryptocurrency investor and Dogecoin founder Michael Terpin has filed a $223.8 million lawsuit against AT&T, alleging the mobile phone giant turned a blind eye to SIM fraud. Terpin alleges that more than 3 million cryptocurrency tokens worth $24 million were lifted from his digital wallet at an...

This Week in Security News: Banks and Botnets

Welcome to our weekly roundup, where we share what you need to know about the cybersecurity news and events that happened over the past few days. This week, the FBI warned U.S. banks of a wide-scale cybercrime campaign called “ATM cash-out,” in which hackers use cloned ATM cards for fraudulent...

16-Year-Old Teen Hacked Apple Servers, Stole 90GB of Secure Files

Well, there's something quite embarrassing for Apple fans. Though Apple servers are widely believed to be unhackable, a 16-year-old high school student proved that nothing is impossible. The teenager from Melbourne, Australia, managed to break into Apple servers and downloaded some 90GB of secure...

Only ATM Heists Set to Accelerate After $13M Break-In

Mere days after the Feds warned banks about an impending ATM cash heist, hackers managed to siphon $13 million from the Pune, India-based Cosmos Bank – using cloned versions of the bank’s debit cards over the course of two days. It’s unlikely to be the last ATM theft that makes news, given how...