MonsterCloud Owner Accused of Billing Over $19M While Secretly Paying Ransoms to Decrypt Data

The U.S. Department of Justice DoJ on Wednesday announced charges against a 50-year-old U.S. and Israeli national for allegedly defrauding ransomware victims by secretly paying the attackers to obtain decryptors while claiming to use proprietary tools to recover their data. Zohar Pinhasi aka Zack...

Extradited Russian Hacker Faces Charges Over Excel Malware Campaign That Infected Thousands

The U.S. Department of Justice DoJ has charged a Russian national, extradited from Cyprus on August 28, with using roughly 255 fake accounts on a freelance platform to send malware-laced Excel attachments to about 80,000 of its users in 2016 and 2017. Searzhudin Tamirlanovich Aktulaev , 40, was...

Extradited Ukrainian Man Admits Role in Conti Ransomware Attacks

Ukrainian national Oleksii Lytvynenko has pleaded guilty in the US to wire fraud conspiracy linked to Conti ransomware, which hit more than 1,000 victims and generated at least $150 million in ransom payments...

‘Scattered Spider’ Member ‘Tylerb’ Pleads Guilty

A 24-year-old British national and senior member of the cybercrime group "Scattered Spider " has pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. Tyler Robert Buchanan admitted his role in a series of text-message phishing attacks in the summer of 2022 that allowed the group...

Five Plead Guilty in U.S. for Helping North Korean IT Workers Infiltrate 136 Companies

The U.S. Department of Justice DoJ on Friday announced that five individuals have pleaded guilty to assisting North Korea's illicit revenue generation schemes by enabling information technology IT worker fraud in violation of international sanctions. The five individuals are listed below - Audric...

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...

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...

SIM-Swapper, Scattered Spider Hacker Gets 10 Years

A 20-year-old Florida man at the center of a prolific cybercrime group known as "Scattered Spider " was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison today, and ordered to pay roughly $13 million in restitution to victims. Noah Michael Urban of Palm Coast, Fla. pleaded guilty in April 2025 to charges o...

Chinese Hacker Xu Zewei Arrested for Ties to Silk Typhoon Group and U.S. Cyber Attacks

A Chinese national has been arrested in Milan, Italy, for his alleged links to a state-sponsored hacking group known as Silk Typhoon and for carrying out cyber attacks against American organizations and government agencies. The 33-year-old, Xu Zewei , has been charged with nine counts of wire fra...

Iranian Hacker Pleads Guilty in $19 Million Robbinhood Ransomware Attack on Baltimore

An Iranian national has pleaded guilty in the U.S. over his involvement in an international ransomware and extortion scheme involving the Robbinhood ransomware. Sina Gholinejad aka Sina Ghaaf, 37, and his co-conspirators are said to have breached the computer networks of various organizations in...

Iranian Hacker Pleads Guilty in $19 Million Robbinhood Ransomware Attack on Baltimore

An Iranian national has pleaded guilty in the U.S. over his involvement in an international ransomware and extortion scheme involving the Robbinhood ransomware. Sina Gholinejad aka Sina Ghaaf, 37, and his co-conspirators are said to have breached the computer networks of various organizations in...

Cyber criminals impersonate payroll, HR and benefits platforms to steal information and funds

The relentless battle against online fraud is a constant evolution, a digital chase where security teams and malicious actors continually adapt. The increasing sophistication of attacks is blurring the lines between legitimate user behavior and impersonation attempts. The campaign we are exposing...

Alleged ‘Scattered Spider’ Member Extradited to U.S.

A 23-year-old Scottish man thought to be a member of the prolific Scattered Spider cybercrime group was extradited last week from Spain to the United States, where he is facing charges of wire fraud, conspiracy and identity theft. U.S. prosecutors allege Tyler Robert Buchanan and co-conspirators...

DoJ Indicts 14 North Koreans for $88M IT Worker Fraud Scheme Over Six Years

The U.S. Department of Justice DoJ has indicted 14 nationals belonging to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea DPRK or North Korea for their alleged involvement in a long-running conspiracy to violate sanctions and commit wire fraud, money laundering, and identity theft by illegally seeking...

U.S. Charges Chinese Hacker for Exploiting Zero-Day in 81,000 Sophos Firewalls

The U.S. government on Tuesday unsealed charges against a Chinese national for allegedly breaking into thousands of Sophos firewall devices globally in 2020. Guan Tianfeng aka gbigmao and gxiaomao, who is said to have worked at Sichuan Silence Information Technology Company, Limited, has been...

5 Scattered Spider Gang Members Indicted in Multi-Million Dollar Cybercrime Scheme

Five alleged members of the infamous Scattered Spider cybercrime crew have been indicted in the U.S. for targeting employees of companies across the country using social engineering techniques to harvest credentials and using them to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data and break into crypt...

U.K. Hacker Charged in $3.75 Million Insider Trading Scheme Using Hacked Executive Emails

The U.S. Department of Justice DoJ has charged a 39-year-old U.K. national for perpetrating a hack-to-trade fraud scheme that netted him nearly $3.75 million in illegal profits. Robert Westbrook of London was arrested last week and is expected to be extradited to the U.S. to face charges related ...

Belarusian-Ukrainian Hacker Extradited to U.S. for Ransomware and Cybercrime Charges

A coalition of law enforcement agencies coordinated by the U.K. National Crime Agency NCA has led to the arrest and extradition of a Belarussian and Ukrainian dual-national believed to be associated with Russian-speaking cybercrime groups. Maksim Silnikau aka Maksym Silnikov, 38, went by the onli...

Indian National Pleads Guilty to $37 Million Cryptocurrency Theft Scheme

An Indian national has pleaded guilty in the U.S. over charges of stealing more than $37 million by setting up a website that impersonated the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange platform. Chirag Tomar, 30, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in pris...

U.S. Charges 7 Chinese Nationals in Major 14-Year Cyber Espionage Operation

The U.S. Department of Justice DoJ on Monday unsealed indictments against seven Chinese nationals for their involvement in a hacking group that targeted U.S. and foreign critics, journalists, businesses, and political officials for about 14 years. The defendants include Ni Gaobin 倪高彬, Weng Ming 翁...