FBI: Cyber-Fraud Losses Rise to Reach $1.4B

About 301,580 consumers reported cyber-fraud and malware attacks to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center IC3 last year – with reported losses exceeding a whopping $1.4 billion. The year’s haul of reports brings the overall total of complaints since the IC3 began recording such things to 4...

Two Romanian Hackers Extradited to the U.S. Over $18 Million Vishing Scam

Two Romanian hackers have been extradited to the United States to face 31 criminal charges including computer fraud and abuse, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Described as "international computer hackers" by the United States Department of Justice, Teodor Laurent...

Two Romanian Hackers Extradited to the U.S. Over $18 Million Vishing Scam

Two Romanian hackers have been extradited to the United States to face 31 criminal charges including computer fraud and abuse, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Described as "international computer hackers" by the United States Department of Justice, Teodor Laurent...

Romanian Hackers Extradited to U.S. over $18M Vishing Scam

A pair of Romanian hackers have been extradited to the U.S. after allegedly bilking unwitting victims out of more than $18 million in an elaborate voice- and SMS-phishing i.e., vishing/smishing scheme. Teodor Laurentiu Costea and Robert Codrut Dumitrescu were named in the 31-count federal grand...

FBI Releases IC3 2017 Internet Crime Report

FBI has released the Internet Crime Complaint Center IC3 2017 Internet Crime Report, which highlights scams trending online. The top three crime types reported by victims in 2017 were non-payment/non-delivery, personal data breach, and phishing. Hot topics for 2017 include ransomware, business...

A week in security (April 16 – April 22)

Last week, we took a stroll down memory lane talking about Facebook and MySpace, noticed a change in the Magnitude exploit kit—wherein it started adopting the GandCrab ransomware, took a good look at a new form of adware that is based on Python, chatted a bit about Russian hacking with a...

Tens of thousands per Gram

Looking at Instagram one morning, I spotted several posts from some fairly well-known people in certain circles who had invested in an ICO held by Telegram. Interesting, I thought to myself. I fancy a piece of that. Only I was pretty sure that if Telegram was indeed holding an ICO, it would be a...

Deleted Facebook Cybercrime Groups Had 300,000 Members

Hours after being alerted by KrebsOnSecurity, Facebook last week deleted almost 120 private discussion groups totaling more than 300,000 members who flagrantly promoted a host of illicit activities on the social media network's platform. The scam groups facilitated a broad spectrum of shady...

When Identity Thieves Hack Your Accountant

The Internal Revenue Service has been urging tax preparation firms to step up their cybersecurity efforts this year, warning that identity thieves and hackers increasingly are targeting certified public accountants CPAs in a bid to siphon oodles of sensitive personal and financial data on...

A week in security (April 02 – April 08)

Last week, we took a look at fake Whatsapp antics, dubious gaming extensions, and a huge Panera bread breach. There was also LockCrypt ransomware to contend with, we had a poke around Linkedin, and we published another Physician, protect thyself blog. Other news Compromised cash register systems...

Advancing threat protection through industry-leading research

At Trend Micro we’ve been protecting our customers around the world for 30 years. So what’s the secret to staying at the cutting edge of the industry for all this time? By investing significant resources into forward-looking threat research, we’ve been able to anticipate where the black hats are...

Finland's 3rd Largest Data Breach Exposes 130,000 Users' Plaintext Passwords

Over 130,000 Finnish citizens have had their credentials compromised in what appears to be third largest data breach ever faced by the country, local media reports. Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority FICORA is warning users of a large-scale data breach in a website maintained by the New...

Secret Service Warns of Chip Card Scheme

The U.S. Secret Service is warning financial institutions about a new scam involving the temporary theft of chip-based debit cards issued to large corporations. In this scheme, the fraudsters intercept new debit cards in the mail and replace the chips on the cards with chips from old cards. When...

Streamline Compliance with SWIFT Customer Security Program Requirements

Transferring money from our bank accounts has never been easier than it is today. With a single click on our smartphones, we can transfer money from a bank account in New York to an account at a different bank in the Netherlands. This advancement is largely a result of the fluent communication...

IC3 Issues Alert on Tech Support Fraud

The Internet Crime Complaint Center IC3 has released an alert on tech support fraud. Tech support fraud involves criminals claiming to provide technical support to fix problems that don't exist. Their methods include placing calls, sending pop-ups, engaging misleading lock screens, and sending...

San Diego Sues Experian Over ID Theft Service

The City of San Diego, Calif. is suing consumer credit bureau Experian, alleging that a data breach first reported by KrebsOnSecurity in 2013 affected more than a quarter-million people in San Diego but that Experian never alerted affected consumers as required under California law. The lawsuit,...

Goodfellas, the Brazilian carding scene is after you

There are three ways of doing things in the malware business: the right way, the wrong way and the way Brazilians do it. From the early beginnings, using skimmers on ATMs, compromising point of sales systems, or even modifying the hardware of processing devices, Latin America has been a fertile...

Financial Cyberthreats in 2017

In 2017, we saw a number of changes to the world of financial threats and new actors emerging. As we have previously noted, fraud attacks in financial services have become increasingly account-centric. User data is a key enabler for large-scale fraud attacks, and frequent data breaches - among...

A week in security (February 19 – February 25)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we gave readers a primer on encryption, took a stab at that Deepfakes tool Internet users seem to be interested in, and started a new series that talks about GDPR. We also looked at a drive-by download campaign that starts in booby-trapped Chinese websites that dro...

Tax refund, or How to lose your remaining cash

Every year, vast numbers of people around the globe relish the delightful prospect of filling out tax returns, applying for tax refunds, etc. Given that tax authorities and their taxpayers are moving online, it's no surprise to find cybercriminals hard on their heels. By spoofing trusted governme...