Citrix Falls Prey to Password-Spraying Attack

Citrix is warning that its internal network has been hit by international cybercriminals. The digital workspace and enterprise networks vendor said in a website notice that the FBI contacted it on Wednesday, saying that there was evidence of a successful cyberattack on its network. While details...

Payroll Provider Gives Extortionists a Payday

Payroll software provider Apex Human Capital Management suffered a ransomware attack this week that severed payroll management services for hundreds of the company's customers for nearly three days. Faced with the threat of an extended outage, Apex chose to pay the ransom demand and begin the...

The (Non-Trump) Surprise Inside Andrew McCabe's Memoir

In The Threat, the former FBI deputy director paints a familiar portrait of Trump, but deepens our understanding of a dark time for agency...

Gen. Nakasone on US Cyber Command

Really interesting article by and interview with Paul M. Nakasone Commander of US Cyber Command, Director of the National Security Agency, and Chief of the Central Security Service in the current issue of Joint Forces Quarterly. He talks about the evolving role of US Cyber Command, and its new...

Don’t Blame Employees who fall for a BEC scam!

The BBC reports that a media company based in Scotland is now suing a former employee who fell for a Business Email Compromise BEC scam. In the scam, the employee received emails which appeared to be from the managing director and requested wire transfers. The employee worked with her line manage...

Ex-US Intelligence Agent Charged With Spying and Helping Iranian Hackers

The United States Department of Justice has announced espionage charges against a former US Air Force intelligence officer with the highest level of top-secret clearance for providing the Iranian government classified defense information after she defected to Iran in 2013. Monica Elfriede Witt, 3...

Internet Romance Scams

The Federal Trade Commission FTC has released an article addressing a rise in reports of internet romance scams. In this type of fraud, cyber criminals gain the confidence of their victims and trick them into sending money. Use caution when online dating, and never send money or gifts to someone...

FBI Mapping 'Joanap Malware' Victims to Disrupt the North Korean Botnet

The United States Department of Justice DoJ announced Wednesday its effort to "map and further disrupt" a botnet tied to North Korea that has infected numerous Microsoft Windows computers across the globe over the last decade. Dubbed Joanap, the botnet is believed to be part of "Hidden Cobra"—an...

Authorities shut down xDedic marketplace for selling hacked servers

By Waqas The domain for xDedic has been seized as well. In a joint operation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI and authorities from several European countries have successfully taken down xDedic, a notorious dark web marketplace known for selling stolen digital goods such as login...

Europol Now Going After People Who Bought DDoS-for-Hire Services

If you were a buyer of any online DDoS-for-hire service, you might be in trouble. After taking down and arresting the operators of the world's biggest DDoS-for-hire service last year, the authorities are now in hunt for customers who bought the service that helped cyber criminals launch millions ...

Three Charged for Working With Serial Swatter

The U.S. Justice Department has filed criminal charges against three U.S. men accused of swatting, or making hoax reports of bomb threats or murders in a bid to trigger a heavily armed police response to a target's address. Investigators say the men, aged 19 to 23, all carried out the attacks wit...

How the U.S. Govt. Shutdown Harms Security

The ongoing partial U.S. federal government shutdown is having a tangible, negative impact on cybercrime investigations, according to interviews with federal law enforcement investigators and a report issued this week by a group representing the interests of FBI agents. Even if lawmakers move...

Evaluating the GCHQ Exceptional Access Proposal

The so-called Crypto Wars have been going on for 25 years now. Basically, the FBI -- and some of their peer agencies in the UK, Australia, and elsewhere -- argue that the pervasive use of civilian encryption is hampering their ability to solve crimes and that they need the tech companies to make...

Unprotected Government Server Exposes Years of FBI Investigations

A massive government data belonging to the Oklahoma Department of Securities ODS was left unsecured on a storage server for at least a week, exposing a whopping 3 terabytes of data containing millions of sensitive files. The unsecured storage server, discovered by Greg Pollock , a researcher with...

Unprotected Government Server Exposes Years of FBI Investigations

A massive government data belonging to the Oklahoma Department of Securities ODS was left unsecured on a storage server for at least a week, exposing a whopping 3 terabytes of data containing millions of sensitive files. The unsecured storage server, discovered by Greg Pollock, a researcher with...

El Chapo's Encryption Defeated by Turning His IT Consultant

Impressive police work: In a daring move that placed his life in danger, the I.T. consultant eventually gave the F.B.I. his system's secret encryption keys in 2011 after he had moved the network's servers from Canada to the Netherlands during what he told the cartel's leaders was a routine upgrad...

Turns Out Kaspersky Labs Helped FBI Catch Alleged NSA Leaker

Remember "The Shadow Brokers" and the arrest of a former NSA contractor accused of stealing 50 Terabytes of top secret documents from the intelligence agency? It turns out that, Kaspersky Lab, which has been banned in US government computers over spying fears, was the one who tipped off the U.S...

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...