Q&A: Eugene Spafford on Cybercrime, Security Research

Threatpost editor Dennis Fisher talks with Eugene Spafford of Purdue’s CERIAS center about cybercrime, funding for long-term security research projects and whether the federal cybersecurity coordinator position matters. Fisher: Do you see any indications that there will be more funding coming fro...

ID Thief Feels Bite of Prison Sentence

Michael A. Roseboro, a/k/a “Mike Ross,” a/k/a “Michael Johnson,” a/k/a “Michael Smith,” was sentenced on November 25 to 116 months in prison for his participation in a massive identity-theft and credit card fraud scheme in which he targeted and stole the identities of at least 176 dentists. Read...

Qchex's Fraud-Enabling Biz Gets FTC Smackdown

The Federal Trade Commission has charged those behind the shady online check service Qchex with contempt, and wants daily fines imposed on them until they give up the ghost. The group has launched a new site—a Qchex clone—with the same questionable policies that made Qchex a “dinner bell for...

UK Police Warn Job Seekers to Avoid Being Money Mules

The Serious Organised Crime Agency Soca says websites are currently being used to recruit “money mules”. The “mules” are ordinary people who send and receive payments through their bank accounts to facilitate business. But in reality, the cash has been laundered from crime, leaving unwitting mule...

U.S. Takes Down $9 Million RBS WorldPay Hacking Ring

U.S. and international prosecutors have taken down a criminal ring that they allege was responsible for an ATM scam last year that stole about $9 million from RBS WorldPay. The criminals were able to evade the company’s encryption system used on payroll debit cards and withdraw money from ATMs in...

FBI Reports Malware on Rise in Electronic Funds Fraud

The FBI reports it has seen a rise of malware over the past few months targeting small and medium businesses and municipal government entities and school districts. Once a malicious attachment or link is opened, keylogging tactics obtain bank account info where criminals then initiate wire...

Guilt by Association: Modem Hacker Arrested for Others' Crimes

Hardware hacker and author, Ryan Harris, aka “DerEngel,” has been arrested in Boston for aiding and abetting intrusion and wire fraud. Harris oversees TCNiSO, a group who hacks cable modems and other hardware. Harris thinks he is being busted for the plights of those who took performance-boosting...

Southern California Man Gets 11 Years in Slammer for ID Theft Ring

Martin Quoc Pham, 28, of Garden Grove was sentenced by a judge to 11 years in Federal prison for spearheading an identity theft ring targeting home equity lines. The compromised accounts of JP Morgan Chase customers were fraudulently accessed and lines of credit were stolen including nearly $1...

The Story of the First Internet Worm

Robert Tappan Morris was the first person convicted by a jury under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986. The story of the worm he created and what happened to him after it was released is a tale of mistakes, infamy, and ultimately the financial and professional success of its author. Read th...

Botnet-Infected Computers Powering Click Fraud

According to new data from ClickForensics, botnet-infected computers are behind the majority of click-fraud attacks against advertisers and publishers. For the third quarter this year, about 43 percent of all fraudulent clicks came from computers within botnets. The figure is the highest in four...

Ex Ford Engineer Arrested for Alleged Theft of Trade Secrets

A former Ford Motor Company engineer has been indicted on charges of theft of trade secrets, attempted theft of trade secrets and unauthorized access to protected computers. Xiang Dong Yu, also known as Mike Yu, was arrested last week as he entered the country at Chicago O’Hare International...

Hackers Using Custom Trojans to Hide Online Bank Thefts

Online criminal gangs have begun using special malware that enables them to hide the amount of money that they’re stealing from victims’ online banking accounts, helping them evade detection for longer periods of time and extend the effectiveness of their crime sprees. Using a banking Trojan call...

A Peek at the 'Bahama' Click Fraud Botnet

A new botnet, codenamed the ‘Bahama’ botnet has been linked to the recent surge in click-fraud and scareware attacks. This video by researchers at Click Forensics shows the Bahama Botnet in action. More on this botnet in this report...

Google + reCAPTCHA Could Raise Bar in Anti-Bot, Anti-Spam Fight

Locked in a cat-and-mouse game with spammers who use bots to defeat anti-fraud mechanisms and create fake accounts, Google today announced a deal to acquire reCAPTCHA, a company that provides those squiggly words at login screens. The ReCAPTCHA deal isn’t exactly a security transaction...

Sophisticated Botnet Causing a Surge in Click Fraud

A new botnet has caused a sharp spike in click fraud because it is skirting the most sophisticated filters of search engines, Web publishers and ad networks, according to Click Forensics. The company, which provides services to monitor ad campaigns for click fraud and reports on click fraud...

MicroSolved Explains Credit Union Pen Test

Officials at MicroSolved, the security services company that was involved in the penetration test that set off concerns about malware-infected CDs being sent to credit unions, have posted a detailed explanation of the technique and how it turned into a national news story. In short, the technique...

Spam Kingpin Ralsky Pleads Guilty to Stock Fraud

From IDG News Service Stephen Lawson Alan Ralsky, a spam kingpin who was convicted of felony bank fraud in 1995, could face more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty in a stock fraud case involving spam messages that pumped up Chinese “penny” stocks. Ralsky and four other individuals...

Cormac Herley on the Underground Economy, IRC Economics and the Externalities of Cybercrime

Dennis Fisher talks with Cormac Herley of Microsoft Research about the paper he co-authored on the realities of the underground economy, why sales of stolen credit cards resemble a market for lemons and how we can get better data on cybercrime activities. Podcast audio courtesy of sykboy65 Downlo...

Study: Women more affected by ID fraud

From CNet Elinor Mills Women are more affected by identity fraud then men are, according to a new survey that also found that it takes women longer to restore their identities but they also tend to change their behavior afterward. In a survey of 808 U.S. households, half of which reported fraud, ...

Criminals pay top money for hackable Nokia phone

From IDG News Jeremy Kirk Criminals are willing to pay thousands of euros for a discontinued Nokia mobile phone with a software problem that can be exploited to hack into online bank accounts cio.com, according to a fraud investigator in the Netherlands. About 10 days ago, investigators observed...