Security News This Week: LastPass Users Had Their Data Stolen—Again

Plus: Former national security advisor John Bolton pleads guilty in classified-materials case, Microsoft helps take down major infostealer infrastructure, and more...

A Ransomware Negotiator Was Working for a Ransomware Gang

Someone pleaded guilty to secretly working for a ransomware gang as he negotiated ransomware payments for clients...

A week in security (January 5 – January 11)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: pcTattletale founder pleads guilty as US cracks down on stalkerware Are we ready for ChatGPT Health? CISA warns of active attacks on HPE OneView and legacy PowerPoint Lego’s Smart Bricks explained: what they do, and what they don’t Fake WinRAR downloads hide malwar...

pcTattletale founder pleads guilty as US cracks down on stalkerware

Reportedly, pcTattletale founder Bryan Fleming has pleaded guilty in US federal court to computer hacking, unlawfully selling and advertising spyware, and conspiracy. This is good news not just because we despise stalkerware like pcTattletale, but because it is only the second US federal...

Bitfinex Hack Convict Ilya Lichtenstein Released Early Under U.S. First Step Act

Ilya Lichtenstein, who was sentenced to prison last year for money laundering charges in connection with his role in the massive hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016, said he has been released early. In a post shared on X last week, the 38-year-old announced his release, crediting U.S...

Ex-L3Harris Cyber Boss Pleads Guilty to Selling Trade Secrets to Russian Firm

Peter Williams, a former executive of Trenchant, L3Harris’ cyber division, has pleaded guilty to two counts of stealing trade secrets and selling them to an unnamed Russian software broker...

London Court Convicts Chinese Mastermind Behind £5bn Crypto Seizure

Zhimin Qian, the 'Bitcoin Queen,' pleads guilty in the UK after police seized over £5 billion in stolen crypto, the world's largest crypto seizure. Details on the Ponzi scam and fight for the funds...

DOJ Resentences BreachForums Founder to 3 Years for Cybercrime and Possession of CSAM

The U.S. Department of Justice DoJ on Tuesday resentenced the former administrator of BreachForums to three years in prison in connection with his role in running the cybercrime forum and possessing child sexual abuse material CSAM. Conor Brian Fitzpatrick aka Pompompurin, 22, of Peekskill, New...

Scattered Spider Hacker Gets 10 Years, $13M Restitution for SIM Swapping Crypto Theft

A 20-year-old member of the notorious cybercrime gang known as Scattered Spider has been sentenced to ten years in prison in the U.S. in connection with a series of major hacks and cryptocurrency thefts. Noah Michael Urban pleaded guilty to charges related to wire fraud and aggravated identity...

A Hacker May Have Deepfaked Trump’s Chief of Staff in a Phishing Campaign

Plus: An Iranian man pleads guilty to a Baltimore ransomware attack, Russia’s nuclear blueprints get leaked, a Texas sheriff uses license plate readers to track a woman who got an abortion, and more...

19-Year-Old Admits to PowerSchool Data Breach Extortion

A 19-year-old college student faces charges after pleading guilty to cyber extortion targeting PowerSchool, exposing data of 60…...

Man Jailed 24 Years for Running Dark Web CSAM Sites from Coffee Shop

Louis Donald Mendonsa, 62, was sentenced following a guilty plea for distributing child sexual abuse materials CSAM via…...

Two Russian Nationals Plead Guilty in LockBit Ransomware Attacks

Two Russian nationals have pleaded guilty in a U.S. court for their participation as affiliates in the LockBit ransomware scheme and helping facilitate ransomware attacks across the world. The defendants include Ruslan Magomedovich Astamirov, 21, of Chechen Republic, and Mikhail Vasiliev, 34, a...

ViLe Cybercrime Group Members Plead Guilty to Hacking DEA Portal

"ViLe" Hackers Busted! Two men plead guilty to breaching a federal law enforcement portal. Learn about the dangers of cybercrime, doxxing, and how authorities are working to combat these threats. This case highlights the importance of cybersecurity for law enforcement and the consequences for...

LockBit Ransomware Hacker Ordered to Pay $860,000 After Guilty Plea in Canada

A 34-year-old Russian-Canadian national has been sentenced to nearly four years in jail in Canada for his participation in the LockBit global ransomware operation. Mikhail Vasiliev, an Ontario resident, was originally arrested in November 2022 and charged by the U.S. Department of Justice DoJ wit...

FBI's Most-Wanted Zeus and IcedID Malware Mastermind Pleads Guilty

A Ukrainian national has pleaded guilty in the U.S. to his role in two different malware schemes, Zeus and IcedID, between May 2009 and February 2021. Vyacheslav Igorevich Penchukov aka Vyacheslav Igoravich Andreev, father, and tank, 37, was arrested by Swiss authorities in October 2022 and...

Dark Web Drug Lord Pleads Guilty, Forfeits $150M Cryptocurrency

By Waqas Banmeet Singh, an Indian national, was arrested in London, England, on April 26, 2019, and extradited to the United States on March 19, 2023. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Dark Web Drug Lord Pleads Guilty, Forfeits $150M Cryptocurrency...

NY Couple Pleads Guilty to $4.5B Bitcoin Theft in Bitfinex Hack

By Waqas The guilty couple goes by the names of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: NY Couple Pleads Guilty to $4.5B Bitcoin Theft in Bitfinex Hack...

Owner of BreachForums Pleads Guilty to Cybercrime and Child Pornography Charges

Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, the owner of the now-defunct BreachForums website, has pleaded guilty to charges related to his operation of the cybercrime forum as well as having child pornography images. The development, first reported by DataBreaches.net last week, comes nearly four months after...

British hacker pleads guilty to hacking schemes, faces 77 years in prison

By Habiba Rashid Joseph James O'Connor was part of a hacking group that hacked over 130 Twitter accounts in July 2020. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: British hacker pleads guilty to hacking schemes, faces 77 years in prison...