Husband stalked ex-wife with seven AirTags, indictment says

Following their divorce, a husband carried out a campaign of stalking and abuse against his ex-wife—referred to only as “S.K.”—by allegedly hiding seven separate Apple AirTags on or near her car, according to documents filed by US prosecutors for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The document...

Financial sextortion scams on the rise

“Hey there!” messaged Savannah, someone 16-year-old Charlie had never met before, but looked cute in her profile picture. She had long blonde hair, blue eyes, and an adorable smile, so he decided to DM with her on Instagram. Soon their flirty exchanges grew heated, and Savannah was sending Charli...

Rebranded Knight Ransomware Targeting Healthcare and Businesses Worldwide

An analysis of a nascent ransomware strain called RansomHub has revealed it to be an updated and rebranded version of Knight ransomware, itself an evolution of another ransomware known as Cyclops. Knight aka Cyclops 2.0 ransomware first arrived in May 2023, employing double extortion tactics to...

US residents targeted by utility scammers on Google

Back in February, we reported on malicious ads related to utility bills electricity, gas that direct victims to call centers where scammers will collect their identity and try to extort money from them. A few months later, we checked and were able to find as many Google ads as before, following...

UNC5537 Targeting Snowflake Users for Data Theft and Extortion

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He Trained Cops to Fight Crypto Crime—and Allegedly Ran a $100M Dark-Web Drug Market

The strange journey of Lin Rui-siang, the 23-year-old accused of running the Incognito black market, extorting his own site’s users—and then refashioning himself as a legit crypto crime expert...

Trinity Ransomware Strikes with the Dual Extortion Strategy

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Black Basta Ransomware Strikes 500+ Entities Across North America, Europe, and Australia

The Black Basta ransomware-as-a-service RaaS operation has targeted more than 500 private industry and critical infrastructure entities in North America, Europe, and Australia since its emergence in April 2022. In a joint advisory published by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency...

Psychotherapy practice hacker gets jail time after extorting patients, publishing personal therapy notes online

On October 30, 2020, I started a article with the words: “Hell is too nice a place for these people.” The subject of this outrage focused on the cybercriminals behind an attack on Finnish psychotherapy practice Vastaamo. Because it was a psychotherapy practice, the records contained extremely...

Verizon’s 2024 DBIR Unpacked: From Ransomware Evolution to Supply Chain Vulnerabilities

As we delve into cybersecuritys complex and evolving landscape, the Verizon 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report DBIR offers crucial insights into the mechanisms and motives behind the latest wave of cyberattacks. Qualys is once again proud to contribute to the report, helping to dissect these...

Man Who Mass-Extorted Psychotherapy Patients Gets Six Years

A 26-year-old Finnish man was sentenced to more than six years in prison today after being convicted of hacking into an online psychotherapy clinic, leaking tens of thousands of patient therapy records, and attempting to extort the clinic and patients. On October 21, 2020, the Vastaamo...

Ransomware Double-Dip: Re-Victimization in Cyber Extortion

Between crossovers - Do threat actors play dirty or desperate? In our dataset of over 11,000 victim organizations that have experienced a Cyber Extortion / Ransomware attack, we noticed that some victims re-occur. Consequently, the question arises why we observe a re-victimization and whether or...

Akira Ransomware Gang Extorts $42 Million; Now Targets Linux Servers

Threat actors behind the Akira ransomware group have extorted approximately $42 million in illicit proceeds after breaching the networks of more than 250 victims as of January 1, 2024. "Since March 2023, Akira ransomware has impacted a wide range of businesses and critical infrastructure entities...

Muddled Libra Shifts Focus to SaaS and Cloud for Extortion and Data Theft Attacks

The threat actor known as Muddled Libra has been observed actively targeting software-as-a-service SaaS applications and cloud service provider CSP environments in a bid to exfiltrate sensitive data. "Organizations often store a variety of data in SaaS applications and use services from CSPs," Pa...

Indian Government Rescues 250 Citizens Forced into Cybercrime in Cambodia

The Indian government said it has rescued and repatriated about 250 citizens in Cambodia who were held captive and coerced into running cyber scams. The Indian nationals "were lured with employment opportunities to that country but were forced to undertake illegal cyber work," the Ministry of...

Lessons from a Ransomware Attack against the British Library

You might think that libraries are kind of boring, but this self-analysis of a 2023 ransomware and extortion attack against the British Library is anything but...

German Police Seize 'Nemesis Market' in Major International Darknet Raid

German authorities have announced the takedown of an illicit underground marketplace called Nemesis Market that peddled narcotics, stolen data, and various cybercrime services. The Federal Criminal Police Office aka Bundeskriminalamt or BKA said it seized the digital infrastructure associated wit...

Ukraine Arrests Trio for Hijacking Over 100 Million Email and Instagram Accounts

The Cyber Police of Ukraine has arrested three individuals on suspicion of hijacking more than 100 million emails and Instagram accounts from users across the world. The suspects, aged between 20 and 40, are said to be part of an organized criminal group living in different parts of the country. ...

LockBit Ransomware Hacker Ordered to Pay $860,000 After Guilty Plea in Canada

A 34-year-old Russian-Canadian national has been sentenced to nearly four years in jail in Canada for his participation in the LockBit global ransomware operation. Mikhail Vasiliev, an Ontario resident, was originally arrested in November 2022 and charged by the U.S. Department of Justice DoJ wit...

There Are Dark Corners of the Internet. Then There's 764

A global network of violent predators is hiding in plain sight, targeting children on major platforms, grooming them, and extorting them to commit horrific acts of abuse...