victims

Tue
14
Feb
John Lister's picture

FBI Hits Ransomware Gang

The FBI says it disrupted a major ransomware network that had already taken around $100 million in payments. It says its work to infiltrate the Hive group saved a potential $130 million in future demands. The group is said to have compromised ... networks run by hospitals and schools among other organizations. The $100 million compares with an estimated annual total of $886 million payments in the US across all ransomware attacks. (Source: nbcnews.com ) Scammers Pay Royalties Hive is one of the more notorious "ransomware-as-a-service" groups. Its business model means individual attackers will use ... (view more)

Tue
05
Apr
John Lister's picture

Ransomware Scammer Gets Five Years

An Estonian man will spend more than five years in a US jail for ransomware scams. Maksim Berezan took more than $50 million from victims. Many scammers get away with online crimes because they operate in countries with a lax attitude to crimes ... committed against people outside their national borders. That was not the case with Berezan, who was arrested in Latvia and extradited to the US. Justice Department officials thanked authorities in both Latvia and Estonia for their cooperation. Although Berezan pleaded guilty in April last year, he's only just been sentenced for "conspiracy to commit ... (view more)

Thu
24
May
John Lister's picture

Google Autocomplete Could Breach Court Orders

Google has inadvertently revealed the names of rape victims whose identity is legally secret. It's all down to over-enthusiastic behavior by the search engine's "autocomplete" feature. Autocomplete works when a user starts typing a term into the ... Google search bar, then the search bar presents a drop-down menu with suggested terms based on what is being typed in. The user can then click or tap on any of these terms to carry out the search without having to type out the search query in full. As they continue typing more characters, the list of suggested terms will update to become ... (view more)

Wed
11
Apr
John Lister's picture

New Ransomware Demand: Play Video Game, Not Cash

A newly unleashed ransomware attack doesn't force victims to pay money to regain access to files. Instead, it demands they play a video game. It's not clear yet what the point of the attack is, though it's most likely the work of a prankster who ... wants to test their skills at creating and distributing ransomware without doing any permanent harm. Ransomware is a form of malware that encrypts files on a computer and normally only unlocks them if the victim pays a fee. In most cases every file on the computer is encrypted, meaning that victims are locked out of their systems and unable to access ... (view more)

Mon
01
Sep
Brandon Dimmel's picture

CryptoWall Ransomware Infects 600k PCs: Report

A new form of ransomware has reportedly infected more than half a million computers in the past six months, making its creators an estimated $1 million. Ransomware is a type of malicious software (or " malware ") that takes control of a computer ... system and then holds it for ransom. In many cases, if victims do not pay the ransom, the data on the computer is encrypted and rendered unusable. The ransomware program in question is known as CryptoWall. According to Dell SecureWorks' Counter Threat Unit (CTU), CryptoWall has been spreading rapidly since late last year. In fact, in ... (view more)

Fri
15
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

Hacker Uses Webcam Video to Blackmail Miss Teen USA

A 19-year-old man has pleaded guilty to blackmailing women after hacking their webcams and taking compromising pictures. Miss Teen USA winner Cassidy Wolf was among Jared James Abrahams' victims. According to prosecutors, Abrahams carried out his ... crimes over a two-year period, targeting women in the US and Europe. The youngest victim was just 16 years of age, with the others in their teens and early 20s. (Source: bbc.co.uk ) Abrahams used malicious software to infect the computers of his victims. This software allowed him to view the webcam video whenever the computer was switched on, even if ... (view more)

Mon
15
Aug
Dennis Faas's picture

Facebook to Shut Down Criminal Accounts

When an individual is incarcerated after committing a crime against another, their sentence is supposed to offer some peace of mind for the victims. However, in California jails, contraband smartphones are helping criminals keep tabs on their ... victims via social networking sites. This year, California corrections officials have reported receiving hundreds of complaints from victims who have been contacted by inmates from beyond prison walls. The most serious case concerns a convicted child offender who had viewed the Facebook and MySpace pages of his victim several times before mailing the ... (view more)

Thu
16
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

Computer Repairman Jailed after 'Peeping Tom' Spyware Spree

A Fullerton, California computer repair technician is in hot water after allegedly using spyware to peep on college dorm women using their web cameras. Police arrested 20-year-old Trevor Harwell after launching a 9 month investigation that started ... back in September of 2010. Harwell, who also attended the same college as the victims has posted a $50,000 bond and denies the claims. (Source: go.com ) Computer Message Instructs User to 'Fix Internal Sensor' Using Steam Dorm residents noticed messages appearing on their laptop computers, telling them to "fix their internal sensor soon" or risk ... (view more)

Mon
08
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

Credit Card Fraud: Most Common Form of ID Theft

According to a new study from the Identity Theft Resource Center, the most common use of identity theft involves opening a new credit account in the victim's name. This type of fraud affects almost two-thirds of identity theft victims. 39 per cent ... of the 2008 victims faced fraudulent charges, up more than twice the 15 per cent of those victimized in 2007. According to the 2009 Breach List report (PDF) from the Identity Theft Resource Center, as of 5/26/09, 230 breaches exposing 11,615,507 records had been reported. (Source: pcworld.com ) Reversing ID Theft Requires Time and Money It can take ... (view more)

Fri
13
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Identity Theft Highest Since 2004, Report Suggests

A recently released report from Javelin Research suggests that identity fraud rose 22 percent in 2008 and reached its highest level since 2004. The study included nearly 4,800 U.S. adults surveyed over the telephone. 482 of those surveyed admitted ... they had been victims of identity fraud. The Javelin Strategy ... (view more)

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