Europol Arrests 34 Black Axe Members in Spain Over €5.9M Fraud and Organized Crime

Europol on Friday announced the arrest of 34 individuals in Spain who are alleged to be part of an international criminal organization called Black Axe. As part of an operation conducted by the Spanish National Police, in coordination with the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office and Europol, 28...

FBI Warns of Fake Video Scams

The FBI is warning of AI-assisted fake kidnapping scams: Criminal actors typically will contact their victims through text message claiming they have kidnapped their loved one and demand a ransom be paid for their release. Oftentimes, the criminal actor will express significant claims of violence...

Cryptocurrency Thefts Get Physical

Long story of a $250 million cryptocurrency theft that, in a complicated chain events, resulted in a pretty brutal kidnapping...

New Threat Actor 'Void Arachne' Targets Chinese Users with Malicious VPN Installers

Chinese-speaking users are the target of a never-before-seen threat activity cluster codenamed Void Arachne that employs malicious Windows Installer MSI files for virtual private networks VPNs to deliver a command-and-control C&C framework called Winos 4.0. "The campaign also promotes compromised...

Picking fights and gaining rights, with Justin Brookman: Lock and Code S05E09

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… Our Lock and Code host, David Ruiz, has a bit of an apology to make: “Sorry for all the depressing episodes.” When the Lock and Code podcast explored online harassment and abuse this year, our guest provided several guidelines and tips for individuals to lo...

A week in security (January 15 – January 21)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Google failing to scrub abortion access in location history, study claims Google changes wording for Incognito browsing in Chrome CISA urges urgent patching of two actively exploited Citrix NetScaler vulnerabilities Cybersecurity spend to soar in 2024: How companie...

A true tale of virtual kidnapping: Lock and Code S05E02

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… On Thursday, December 28, at 8:30 pm in the Utah town of Riverdale, the city police began investigating what they believed was a kidnapping. 17-year-old foreign exchange student Kai Zhuang was missing, and according to Riverdale Police Chief Casey Warren,...

A true tale of virtual kidnapping: Lock and Code S05E02

This week on the Lock and Code podcast… On Thursday, December 28, at 8:30 pm in the Utah town of Riverdale, the city police began investigating what they believed was a kidnapping. 17-year-old foreign exchange student Kai Zhuang was missing, and according to Riverdale Police Chief Casey Warren,...

A week in security (April 10 - 16)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: How the cops buy a "God view" of your location data, with Bennett Cyphers: Lock and Code S04E09 Apple releases emergency updates for two known-to-be-exploited vulnerabilities Don't plug your phone into a free charging station, warns FBI KFC, Pizza Hut owner employe...

Is AI being used for virtual kidnapping scams?

You may have seen a worrying report of Artificial Intelligence AI being used in a virtual kidnapping scam. The AI was supposedly used to imitate the voice of an Arizona resident's daughter, who claimed to have been kidnapped. The daughter was safe and well elsewhere on a school trip. Unfortunatel...

A week in security (December 12 - 18)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Indiana sues TikTok, describes it as "Chinese Trojan Horse" Iranian hacking group uses compromised email accounts to distribute MSP remote access tool Electronic Sales Suppression Tools are cooking the books Silence is golden partner for Truebot and Cl0p ransomware...

Virtual kidnapping scam strikes again. Spot the signs

Warnings abound of a major new piece of fraud doing the rounds which uses your relatives voice as part of a blackmail scam. What happens is the victim receives a call from said relatives number, and theyre cut off by blackmailers who have them held hostage. The only way to get them back safely is...

SIM Swapper Abducted, Beaten, Held for $200k Ransom

A Florida teenager who served as a lackey for a cybercriminal group that specializes in cryptocurrency thefts was beaten and kidnapped last week by a rival cybercrime gang. The teens captives held guns to his head while forcing him to record a video message pleading with his crew to fork over a...

Zulip Server Reverse Tag Kidnapping Vulnerability

Zulip is a powerful open source group chat application that combines the immediacy of live chat with the productivity benefits of threaded conversations.Zulip Server is the Zulip server. A reverse tag kidnapping vulnerability exists in Zulip Server versions prior to 2.1.5. An attacker can exploit...

Kidnapping Fraud

Fake kidnapping fraud: "Most commonly we have unsolicited calls to potential victims in Australia, purporting to represent the people in authority in China and suggesting to intending victims here they have been involved in some sort of offence in China or elsewhere, for which they're being held...

Bitcoin exchange hit by DDoS attack after kidnapping of its official (Updated)

By Waqas Bitcoin is one of those cryptocurrencies whose value has rapidly This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Bitcoin exchange hit by DDoS attack after kidnapping of its official Updated...

CEO of Major UK-Based Cryptocurrency Exchange Kidnapped in Ukraine

Pavel Lerner, a prominent Russian blockchain expert and known managing director of one of the major crypto-exchanges EXMO, has allegedly been kidnapped by "unknown" criminals in the Ukranian capital of Kiev. According to Ukraine-based web publication Strana, Lerner, 40-year-old citizen of Russia,...

FBI Director — "What If Apple Engineers are Kidnapped and Forced to Write (Exploit) Code?"

What If Apple Engineers are Kidnapped and Forced to Write Exploit Code? Exactly this was what FBI Director James Comey asked in the congressional hearing on Tuesday. The House Judiciary Committee hearing on "The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans' Security and Privacy" over the ongoing...

CSI: Cyber: We Watched So You Didn't Have To

From the time the first commercials aired during the American pro football championship game last month, CSI: Cyber has been one of the more talked-about and least-anticipated shows in recent memory. At least in tech circles. For normal viewers, it’s one of those shows that you wake up in the...

Using the Internet to Catch Traditional (Non-cyber) Criminals

It can happen to anyone…and when it does it usually catches everybody – the victim and his relatives – completely unprepared. I’m talking about kidnapping. Twice in my life I’ve been involved in helping the police track down and arrest gangs of kidnappers. The first case didn’t directly affect me...