Reveton Ransomware uses Fake FBI Message to Extort Money

The FBI today warned of Internet-borne malware masquerading as a message from the law enforcement agency that locks computers until the user pays a fine for allegedly downloading and/or distributing illegal content. “We’re getting inundated with complaints,” Donna Gregory of the Internet Crime...

U.S. Still Tops at Hosting Phishing Sites

There are a lot of things that the United States is no longer so good at doing: eating vegetables or winning major marathons, for example. But one thing that the U.S. still does really well is provide comfortable hosting platforms for phishing sites. In fact, about 60 percent of all phishing site...

Yahoo Sued By User Following Breach of 450,000 Passwords

Internet search conglomerate Yahoo is being sued by one of its users for negligence after the usernames and passwords of approximately 450,000 of its users were leaked by a hacker online last month. According to a complaint .PDF filed earlier this week in a federal court in San Jose, Calif., the...

Report: Fraudulent Calls Up 29 Percent in 2012

On average, there were almost five fraudulent phone calls every minute earlier this year according to a report released today from security firm Pindrop Security. The Atlanta-based company found phone fraud was up 29 percent January to June this year from the last half of 2011 after it analyzed 1...

Olympic Flavored 419 Scams Exploit London Games Fervor

Olympic themed fraud, email scams, and spam campaigns are so banal right now that the official website of the 2012 London Olympic Games contains not only a ‘stay safe online’ page but has also compiled a downloadable list of known scams. The “Stay safe online” page of the London Games’ website...

Report: Bandwith-Burning Malware Among Biggest Consumer Threats

A new malware report indicates Android malware samples grew three-fold last quarter and that one in every 140 devices connected to mobile networks was infected at some point. Closer to home, about 14 percent of household networks were hit by malware this spring, with a 50 percent increase in...

Rash Identity Theft Sweeps Small Kentucky Town

Dozens of individuals from Winchester, a small Kentucky town east of Lexington have been targeted by hackers, according to a report earlier this week in the Lexington Herald-Leader. The newspaper claims between 50 and 100 diners at Puerta Grande, a small Mexican restaurant, were hit with bank fra...

More Malware Using a Remote Payload Discovered on Google Play

Symantec is warning of new malware masquerading as two apps on Google Play that claimed up to 100,000 victims before the Trojan was removed. Both “Super Mario Bros.” and “GTA 3 Moscow City” racked up 50,000 to 100,000 downloads after being posted June 24 on Google Play. “What is most interesting...

Most of What You've Read About DNSChanger Is Wrong. Here's How.

If you’ve been scanning the headlines or watching the evening news, you may have heard that tens of thousands of Internet users in the U.S. – hundreds of thousands around the world – will be cut off from the Internet on Monday, July 9, after servers set up at the bequest of the U.S. government go...

Appeals Court Calls Bank's Security "Commercially Unreasonable"

The United States Court of Appeals on Tuesday reversed a lower court’s decision, ruling that the IT security system used by a domestic bank was not “commercially reasonable” to protect its customers. The ruling PDF, in the case of People’s United Bank formerly Ocean Bank of Maine versus Patco...

There is No Reason to Take a Picture of Your Debit Card …Ever

It does not matter how cute it is, or how relieved you are to finally find it after having lost it, or how mad you are at those hacks over at your bank for misspelling your name. It cannot be stressed enough that it is always a terrible, terrible idea to post pictures of your credit or debit card...

Three Baltic Men Jailed After Using SpyEye Malware

Two men found using the SpyEye Trojan to swindle users out of their banking information were jailed last week after violating the United Kingdom’s Computer Misuse Act. Pavel Cyganok, 28, a Lithuanian, along with Ilja Zakrevski, 26, an Estonian, were jailed for four years while a third man, Latvia...

New Fraud Ring 'Operation High Roller' Targets the Rich

A recent fraud ring through which attackers raided high-value bank accounts, nicknamed Operation High Roller .PDF, employed attacks that were quick, required no human interaction and have already affected several tiers of credit unions, regional banks and large global banks, over the last several...

Hacker charged for hacking into U.S. Energy Department

Hacker charged for hacking into U.S. Energy Department Andrew James Miller, a 23-year-old resident of Devon, Pennsylvania, was arrested on Thursday and charged with one count of conspiracy, two counts of computer fraud, and one count of access device fraud, according to a statement issued by the...

Pennsylvania Man Indicted For Hack of Department of Energy Network

A Pennsylvania man was arrested yesterday after a Massachusetts grand jury issued a four-count indictment alleging that he hacked into computer networks belonging to the U.S. Department of Energy DoE and the University of Massachusetts and tried to sell access to a DoE supercomputer for $50,000 t...

NYT: When Hackers Strike, Small Business Owners Hit Hard

Independent business owners may find themselves deep in debt after hackers wipe out their bank accounts, with banks reluctant to recoup losses caused by online attacks, according to a report in the New York Times. The article, in the Thursday edition of the Times, details several so-called...

House Hearing to Address Capital Market Threats

The House Committee on Financial Services is hosting a hearing tomorrow in which they will explore the various cyber threats targeting capital markets and government sponsored enterprises. Entitled “Cyber Threats to Capital Markets and Corporate Accounts,” the hearing in front of the Committee on...

Industry Groups Bid To Control New .Bank And .Insurance TLDs

Two financial industry groups: The American Bankers Association ABA and the Financial Services Roundtable announced on Thursday that they have applied to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ICANN to operate to top level Internet domains, .bank and .insurance, on behalf of the...

Man Pleads Guilty To Stealing Source Code From Federal Reserve

A 33 year-old Chinese man pleaded guilty in U.S. Federal Court to stealing proprietary source code used by the U.S. Federal Reserve to help track billions of dollars in government transfers that occur daily, according to a report by Reuters. Bo a.k.a. “Bryan” Zhang was employed as a contract work...

FBI Warns Users of New 'Reveton' Scareware Scam

The FBI is warning consumers about a new scam that’s using a piece of malware called Citadel to redirect users to a scam site that installs scareware on their machines and demands a $100 payment to unlock them. The twist in this scam is that it uses the threat of prosecution by the Department of...