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Carding — the underground business of stealing, selling and swiping stolen payment card data — has long been the dominion of Russia-based hackers. Happily, the broad deployment of more secure chip-based payment cards in the United States has weakened the carding market. But a flurry of innovation from cybercrime groups in China is breathing new life into the carding industry, by turning phished card data into mobile wallets that can be used online and at main street stores.
An image from one Chinese phishing group’s Telegram channel shows various toll road phish kits available.
If you own a mobile phone, the chances are excellent that at some point in the past two years it has received at least one phishing message that spoofs the U.S. Postal Service to supposedly collect some outstanding delivery fee, or an SMS that pretends to be a local toll road operator warning of a delinquent toll fee.
These messages are being sent through sophisticated phishing kits sold by several cybercriminals based in mainland China. And they are not traditional SMS phishing or “smishing” messages, as they bypass the mobile networks entirely. Rather, the missives are sent through the Apple iMessage service and through RCS, the functionally equivalent technology on Google phones.
People who enter their payment card data at one of these sites will be told their financial institution needs to verify the small transaction by sending a one-time passcode to the customer’s mobile device. In reality, that code will be sent by the victim’s financial institution to verify that the user indeed wishes to link their card information to a mobile wallet.
If the victim then provides that one-time code, the phishers will link the card data to a new mobile wallet from Apple or Google, loading the wallet onto a mobile phone that the scammers control.
Ford Merrill works in security research at SecAlliance, a CSIS Security Group company. Merrill has been studying the evolution of several China-based smishing gangs, and found that most of them feature helpful and informative video tutorials in their sales accounts on Telegram. Those videos show the thieves are loading multiple stolen digital wallets on a single mobile device, and then selling those phones in bulk for hundreds of dollars apiece.
“Who says carding is dead?,” said Merrill, who presented about his findings at the M3AAWG security conference in Lisbon earlier today. “This is the best mag stripe cloning device ever. This threat actor is saying you need to buy at least 10 phones, and they’ll air ship them to you.”
One promotional video shows stacks of milk crates stuffed full of phones for sale. A closer inspection reveals that each phone is affixed with a handwritten notation that typically references the date its mobile wallets were added, the number of wallets on the device, and the initials of the seller.
An image from the Telegram channel for a popular Chinese smishing kit vendor shows 10 mobile phones for sale, each loaded with 4-6 digital wallets from different UK financial institutions.
Merrill said one common way criminal groups in China are cashing out with these stolen mobile wallets involves setting up fake e-commerce businesses on Stripe or Zelle and running transactions through those entities — often for amounts totaling between $100 and $500.
Merrill said that when these phishing groups first began operating in earnest two years ago, they would wait between 60 to 90 days before selling the phones or using them for fraud. But these days that waiting period is more like just seven to ten days, he said.
“When they first installed this, the actors were very patient,” he said. “Nowadays, they only wait like 10 days before [the wallets] are hit hard and fast.”
Criminals also can cash out mobile wallets by obtaining real point-of-sale terminals and using tap-to-pay on phone after phone. But they also offer a more cutting-edge mobile fraud technology: Merrill found that at least one of the Chinese phishing groups sells an Android app called “ZNFC” that can relay a valid NFC transaction to anywhere in the world. The user simply waves their phone at a local payment terminal that accepts Apple or Google pay, and the app relays an NFC transaction over the Internet from a phone in China.
“The software can work from anywhere in the world,” Merrill said. “These guys provide the software for $500 a month, and it can relay both NFC enabled tap-to-pay as well as any digital wallet. The even have 24-hour support.”
The rise of so-called “ghost tap” mobile software was first documented in November 2024 by security experts at ThreatFabric. Andy Chandler, the company’s chief commercial officer, said their researchers have since identified a number of criminal groups from different regions of the world latching on to this scheme.
Chandler said those include organized crime gangs in Europe that are using similar mobile wallet and NFC attacks to take money out of ATMs made to work with smartphones.
“No one is talking about it, but we’re now seeing ten different methodologies using the same modus operandi, and none of them are doing it the same,” Chandler said. “This is much bigger than the banks are prepared to say.”
A November 2024 story in the Singapore daily The Straits Times reported authorities there arrested three foreign men who were recruited in their home countries via social messaging platforms, and given ghost tap apps with which to purchase expensive items from retailers, including mobile phones, jewelry, and gold bars.
“Since Nov 4, at least 10 victims who had fallen for e-commerce scams have reported unauthorised transactions totaling more than $100,000 on their credit cards for purchases such as electronic products, like iPhones and chargers, and jewelry in Singapore,” The Straits Times wrote, noting that in another case with a similar modus operandi, the police arrested a Malaysian man and woman on Nov 8.
Three individuals charged with using ghost tap software at an electronics store in Singapore. Image: The Straits Times.
According to Merrill, the phishing pages that spoof the USPS and various toll road operators are powered by several innovations designed to maximize the extraction of victim data.
For example, a would-be smishing victim might enter their personal and financial information, but then decide the whole thing is scam before actually submitting the data. In this case, anything typed into the data fields of the phishing page will be captured in real time, regardless of whether the visitor actually clicks the “submit” button.
Merrill said people who submit payment card data to these phishing sites often are then told their card can’t be processed, and urged to use a different card. This technique, he said, sometimes allows the phishers to steal more than one mobile wallet per victim.
Many phishing websites expose victim data by storing the stolen information directly on the phishing domain. But Merrill said these Chinese phishing kits will forward all victim data to a back-end database operated by the phishing kit vendors. That way, even when the smishing sites get taken down for fraud, the stolen data is still safe and secure.
Another important innovation is the use of mass-created Apple and Google user accounts through which these phishers send their spam messages. One of the Chinese phishing groups posted images on their Telegram sales channels showing how these robot Apple and Google accounts are loaded onto Apple and Google phones, and arranged snugly next to each other in an expansive, multi-tiered rack that sits directly in front of the phishing service operator.
The ashtray says: You’ve been phishing all night.
In other words, the smishing websites are powered by real human operators as long as new messages are being sent. Merrill said the criminals appear to send only a few dozen messages at a time, likely because completing the scam takes manual work by the human operators in China. After all, most one-time codes used for mobile wallet provisioning are generally only good for a few minutes before they expire.
Notably, none of the phishing sites spoofing the toll operators or postal services will load in a regular Web browser; they will only render if they detect that a visitor is coming from a mobile device.
“One of the reasons they want you to be on a mobile device is they want you to be on the same device that is going to receive the one-time code,” Merrill said. “They also want to minimize the chances you will leave. And if they want to get that mobile tokenization and grab your one-time code, they need a live operator.”
Merrill found the Chinese phishing kits feature another innovation that makes it simple for customers to turn stolen card details into a mobile wallet: They programmatically take the card data supplied by the phishing victim and convert it into a digital image of a real payment card that matches that victim’s financial institution. That way, attempting to enroll a stolen card into Apple Pay, for example, becomes as easy as scanning the fabricated card image with an iPhone.
An ad from a Chinese SMS phishing group’s Telegram channel showing how the service converts stolen card data into an image of the stolen card.
“The phone isn’t smart enough to know whether it’s a real card or just an image,” Merrill said. “So it scans the card into Apple Pay, which says okay we need to verify that you’re the owner of the card by sending a one-time code.”
How profitable are these mobile phishing kits? The best guess so far comes from data gathered by other security researchers who’ve been tracking these advanced Chinese phishing vendors.
In August 2023, the security firm Resecurity discovered a vulnerability in one popular Chinese phish kit vendor’s platform that exposed the personal and financial data of phishing victims. Resecurity dubbed the group the Smishing Triad, and found the gang had harvested 108,044 payment cards across 31 phishing domains (3,485 cards per domain).
In August 2024, security researcher Grant Smith gave a presentation at the DEFCON security conference about tracking down the Smishing Triad after scammers spoofing the U.S. Postal Service duped his wife. By identifying a different vulnerability in the gang’s phishing kit, Smith said he was able to see that people entered 438,669 unique credit cards in 1,133 phishing domains (387 cards per domain).
Based on his research, Merrill said it’s reasonable to expect between $100 and $500 in losses on each card that is turned into a mobile wallet. Merrill said they observed nearly 33,000 unique domains tied to these Chinese smishing groups during the year between the publication of Resecurity’s research and Smith’s DEFCON talk.
Using a median number of 1,935 cards per domain and a conservative loss of $250 per card, that comes out to about $15 billion in fraudulent charges over a year.
Merrill was reluctant to say whether he’d identified additional security vulnerabilities in any of the phishing kits sold by the Chinese groups, noting that the phishers quickly fixed the vulnerabilities that were detailed publicly by Resecurity and Smith.
Adoption of touchless payments took off in the United States after the Coronavirus pandemic emerged, and many financial institutions in the United States were eager to make it simple for customers to link payment cards to mobile wallets. Thus, the authentication requirement for doing so defaulted to sending the customer a one-time code via SMS.
Experts say the continued reliance on one-time codes for onboarding mobile wallets has fostered this new wave of carding. KrebsOnSecurity interviewed a security executive from a large European financial institution who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
That expert said the lag between the phishing of victim card data and its eventual use for fraud has left many financial institutions struggling to correlate the causes of their losses.
“That’s part of why the industry as a whole has been caught by surprise,” the expert said. “A lot of people are asking, how this is possible now that we’ve tokenized a plaintext process. We’ve never seen the volume of sending and people responding that we’re seeing with these phishers.”
To improve the security of digital wallet provisioning, some banks in Europe and Asia require customers to log in to the bank’s mobile app before they can link a digital wallet to their device.
Addressing the ghost tap threat may require updates to contactless payment terminals, to better identify NFC transactions that are being relayed from another device. But experts say it’s unrealistic to expect retailers will be eager to replace existing payment terminals before their expected lifespans expire.
And of course Apple and Google have an increased role to play as well, given that their accounts are being created en masse and used to blast out these smishing messages. Both companies could easily tell which of their devices suddenly have 7-10 different mobile wallets added from 7-10 different people around the world. They could also recommend that financial institutions use more secure authentication methods for mobile wallet provisioning.
Neither Apple nor Google responded to requests for comment on this story.
Cryptocurrency offers exciting opportunities—but it’s also a favorite playground for scammers.
With the rapid rise of deepfake technology and deceptive AI-driven schemes, even seasoned investors can fall victim to fraud. According to McAfee’s State of the Scamiverse report, deepfake scams are on the rise, with the average American now encountering 2.6 deepfake videos daily. And younger adults (18-24) see even more – about 3.5 per day.
From fake investment opportunities to phishing attempts, bad actors are more sophisticated than ever.
The recent wave of Trump-themed meme coins—more than 700 copycats attempting to mimic the real thing—highlights just how rampant crypto scams have become. If even the president’s cryptocurrency isn’t safe from impersonators, how can everyday investors protect themselves?
By knowing the red flags, you can safeguard your money and personal data from crypto scammers.
Scammers often lure victims with guaranteed returns or impossibly high profits. If an investment promises “risk-free” earnings or sounds like a financial miracle, run the other way—legitimate investments always carry some level of risk.
Example: A Ponzi scheme disguised as a crypto investment fund may claim to offer “10% daily profits” or “instant payouts.” In reality, they use new investors’ money to pay early participants—until the scam collapses.
Fraudsters frequently impersonate public figures—from Elon Musk to Donald Trump—to promote fake coins or crypto investments. The explosion of Trump-themed meme coins shows how easily scammers exploit famous names. Even if a project appears linked to a well-known figure, verify through official channels.
Example: A deepfake video featuring a celebrity “endorsing” a new crypto token. McAfee’s research found that nearly 3 deepfake videos per day are encountered by the average American, many of them tied to scams.
Scammers often set up fraudulent crypto exchanges or wallet apps that look legitimate but are designed to steal your money. They might advertise low fees, special bonuses, or exclusive access to new coins.
How to Protect Yourself:
Always use well-established exchanges with a proven track record.
Look for HTTPS encryption and verify the URL carefully.
Research if the platform is licensed and regulated.
Scammers thrive on urgency. They’ll push you to act immediately before you have time to think critically. Whether it’s a limited-time pre-sale or a “secret investment opportunity,” don’t let fear of missing out (FOMO) cloud your judgment.
Example: “Only 10 spots left! Invest now before prices skyrocket!”—Classic scam tactics designed to trigger impulsive decisions.
No legitimate crypto project will ever ask for:
Example: A fake customer support email pretending to be from Coinbase, asking you to confirm your wallet password—this is a phishing attempt!
Do Your Research: Always Google the project’s name + “scam” before investing.
Check Regulatory Status: See if the platform is licensed (DFPI, SEC, or other regulators).
Verify Official Websites & Socials: Scammers create lookalike websites with small typos—double-check URLs!
Use Cold Storage: Store your assets in a hardware wallet to protect against hacks.
Use tools like McAfee+: To monitor for potential scams and get warnings for potential deepfakes and other scam red flags.
Crypto offers incredible potential—but with great opportunity comes risk. Scammers are always evolving, using deepfake videos, phishing, and fraudulent investment schemes to trick even the savviest investors. By staying informed and following basic security practices, you can avoid getting caught in the next big crypto scam.
The post How to Spot a Crypto Scam: The Top Red Flags to Watch For appeared first on McAfee Blog.
In mid-March 2024, KrebsOnSecurity revealed that the founder of the personal data removal service Onerep also founded dozens of people-search companies. Shortly after that investigation was published, Mozilla said it would stop bundling Onerep with the Firefox browser and wind down its partnership with the company. But nearly a year later, Mozilla is still promoting it to Firefox users.
Mozilla offers Onerep to Firefox users on a subscription basis as part of Mozilla Monitor Plus. Launched in 2018 under the name Firefox Monitor, Mozilla Monitor also checks data from the website Have I Been Pwned? to let users know when their email addresses or password are leaked in data breaches.
The ink on that partnership agreement had barely dried before KrebsOnSecurity published a story showing that Onerep’s Belarusian CEO and founder Dimitiri Shelest launched dozens of people-search services since 2010, including a still-active data broker called Nuwber that sells background reports on people. This seemed to contradict Onerep’s stated motto, “We believe that no one should compromise personal online security and get a profit from it.”
Shelest released a lengthy statement (PDF) wherein he acknowledged maintaining an ownership stake in Nuwber, a consumer data broker he founded in 2015 — around the same time he started Onerep.
Onerep.com CEO and founder Dimitri Shelest, as pictured on the “about” page of onerep.com.
Shelest maintained that Nuwber has “zero cross-over or information-sharing with Onerep,” and said any other old domains that may be found and associated with his name are no longer being operated by him.
“I get it,” Shelest wrote. “My affiliation with a people search business may look odd from the outside. In truth, if I hadn’t taken that initial path with a deep dive into how people search sites work, Onerep wouldn’t have the best tech and team in the space. Still, I now appreciate that we did not make this more clear in the past and I’m aiming to do better in the future.”
When asked to comment on the findings, Mozilla said then that although customer data was never at risk, the outside financial interests and activities of Onerep’s CEO did not align with their values.
“We’re working now to solidify a transition plan that will provide customers with a seamless experience and will continue to put their interests first,” Mozilla said.
In October 2024, Mozilla published a statement saying the search for a different provider was taking longer than anticipated.
“While we continue to evaluate vendors, finding a technically excellent and values-aligned partner takes time,” Mozilla wrote. “While we continue this search, Onerep will remain the backend provider, ensuring that we can maintain uninterrupted services while we continue evaluating new potential partners that align more closely with Mozilla’s values and user expectations. We are conducting thorough diligence to find the right vendor.”
Asked for an update, Mozilla said the search for a replacement partner continues.
“The work’s ongoing but we haven’t found the right alternative yet,” Mozilla said in an emailed statement. “Our customers’ data remains safe, and since the product provides a lot of value to our subscribers, we’ll continue to offer it during this process.”
It’s a win-win for Mozilla that they’ve received accolades for their principled response while continuing to partner with Onerep almost a year later. But if it takes so long to find a suitable replacement, what does that say about the personal data removal industry itself?
Onerep appears to be working in partnership with another problematic people-search service: Radaris, which has a history of ignoring opt-out requests or failing to honor them. A week before breaking the story about Onerep, KrebsOnSecurity published research showing the co-founders of Radaris were two native Russian brothers who’d built a vast network of affiliate marketing programs and consumer data broker services.
Lawyers for the Radaris co-founders threatened to sue KrebsOnSecurity unless that story was retracted in full, claiming the founders were in fact Ukrainian and that our reporting had defamed the brothers by associating them with the actions of Radaris. Instead, we published a follow-up investigation which showed that not only did the brothers from Russia create Radaris, for many years they issued press releases quoting a fictitious CEO seeking money from investors.
Several readers have shared emails they received from Radaris after attempting to remove their personal data, and those messages show Radaris has been promoting Onerep.
An email from Radaris promoting Onerep.
Microsoft today issued security updates to fix at least 56 vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and supported software, including two zero-day flaws that are being actively exploited.
All supported Windows operating systems will receive an update this month for a buffer overflow vulnerability that carries the catchy name CVE-2025-21418. This patch should be a priority for enterprises, as Microsoft says it is being exploited, has low attack complexity, and no requirements for user interaction.
Tenable senior staff research engineer Satnam Narang noted that since 2022, there have been nine elevation of privilege vulnerabilities in this same Windows component — three each year — including one in 2024 that was exploited in the wild as a zero day (CVE-2024-38193).
“CVE-2024-38193 was exploited by the North Korean APT group known as Lazarus Group to implant a new version of the FudModule rootkit in order to maintain persistence and stealth on compromised systems,” Narang said. “At this time, it is unclear if CVE-2025-21418 was also exploited by Lazarus Group.”
The other zero-day, CVE-2025-21391, is an elevation of privilege vulnerability in Windows Storage that could be used to delete files on a targeted system. Microsoft’s advisory on this bug references something called “CWE-59: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access,” says no user interaction is required, and that the attack complexity is low.
Adam Barnett, lead software engineer at Rapid7, said although the advisory provides scant detail, and even offers some vague reassurance that ‘an attacker would only be able to delete targeted files on a system,’ it would be a mistake to assume that the impact of deleting arbitrary files would be limited to data loss or denial of service.
“As long ago as 2022, ZDI researchers set out how a motivated attacker could parlay arbitrary file deletion into full SYSTEM access using techniques which also involve creative misuse of symbolic links,”Barnett wrote.
One vulnerability patched today that was publicly disclosed earlier is CVE-2025-21377, another weakness that could allow an attacker to elevate their privileges on a vulnerable Windows system. Specifically, this is yet another Windows flaw that can be used to steal NTLMv2 hashes — essentially allowing an attacker to authenticate as the targeted user without having to log in.
According to Microsoft, minimal user interaction with a malicious file is needed to exploit CVE-2025-21377, including selecting, inspecting or “performing an action other than opening or executing the file.”
“This trademark linguistic ducking and weaving may be Microsoft’s way of saying ‘if we told you any more, we’d give the game away,'” Barnett said. “Accordingly, Microsoft assesses exploitation as more likely.”
The SANS Internet Storm Center has a handy list of all the Microsoft patches released today, indexed by severity. Windows enterprise administrators would do well to keep an eye on askwoody.com, which often has the scoop on any patches causing problems.
It’s getting harder to buy Windows software that isn’t also bundled with Microsoft’s flagship Copilot artificial intelligence (AI) feature. Last month Microsoft started bundling Copilot with Microsoft Office 365, which Redmond has since rebranded as “Microsoft 365 Copilot.” Ostensibly to offset the costs of its substantial AI investments, Microsoft also jacked up prices from 22 percent to 30 percent for upcoming license renewals and new subscribers.
Office-watch.com writes that existing Office 365 users who are paying an annual cloud license do have the option of “Microsoft 365 Classic,” an AI-free subscription at a lower price, but that many customers are not offered the option until they attempt to cancel their existing Office subscription.
In other security patch news, Apple has shipped iOS 18.3.1, which fixes a zero day vulnerability (CVE-2025-24200) that is showing up in attacks.
Adobe has issued security updates that fix a total of 45 vulnerabilities across InDesign, Commerce, Substance 3D Stager, InCopy, Illustrator, Substance 3D Designer and Photoshop Elements.
Chris Goettl at Ivanti notes that Google Chrome is shipping an update today which will trigger updates for Chromium based browsers including Microsoft Edge, so be on the lookout for Chrome and Edge updates as we proceed through the week.
Wired reported this week that a 19-year-old working for Elon Musk‘s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was given access to sensitive US government systems even though his past association with cybercrime communities should have precluded him from gaining the necessary security clearances to do so. As today’s story explores, the DOGE teen is a former denizen of ‘The Com,’ an archipelago of Discord and Telegram chat channels that function as a kind of distributed cybercriminal social network for facilitating instant collaboration.
Since President Trump’s second inauguration, Musk’s DOGE team has gained access to a truly staggering amount of personal and sensitive data on American citizens, moving quickly to seize control over databases at the U.S. Treasury, the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Resources, among others.
Wired first reported on Feb. 2 that one of the technologists on Musk’s crew is a 19-year-old high school graduate named Edward Coristine, who reportedly goes by the nickname “Big Balls” online. One of the companies Coristine founded, Tesla.Sexy LLC, was set up in 2021, when he would have been around 16 years old.
“Tesla.Sexy LLC controls dozens of web domains, including at least two Russian-registered domains,” Wired reported. “One of those domains, which is still active, offers a service called Helfie, which is an AI bot for Discord servers targeting the Russian market. While the operation of a Russian website would not violate US sanctions preventing Americans doing business with Russian companies, it could potentially be a factor in a security clearance review.”
Mr. Coristine has not responded to requests for comment. In a follow-up story this week, Wired found that someone using a Telegram handle tied to Coristine solicited a DDoS-for-hire service in 2022, and that he worked for a short time at a company that specializes in protecting customers from DDoS attacks.
A profile photo from Coristine’s WhatsApp account.
Internet routing records show that Coristine runs an Internet service provider called Packetware (AS400495). Also known as “DiamondCDN,” Packetware currently hosts tesla[.]sexy and diamondcdn[.]com, among other domains.
DiamondCDN was advertised and claimed by someone who used the nickname “Rivage” on several Com-based Discord channels over the years. A review of chat logs from some of those channels show other members frequently referred to Rivage as “Edward.”
From late 2020 to late 2024, Rivage’s conversations would show up in multiple Com chat servers that are closely monitored by security companies. In November 2022, Rivage could be seen requesting recommendations for a reliable and powerful DDoS-for-hire service.
Rivage made that request in the cybercrime channel “Dstat,” a core Com hub where users could buy and sell attack services. Dstat’s website dstat[.]cc was seized in 2024 as part of “Operation PowerOFF,” an international law enforcement action against DDoS services.
Coristine’s LinkedIn profile said that in 2022 he worked at an anti-DDoS company called Path Networks, which Wired generously described as a “network monitoring firm known for hiring reformed blackhat hackers.” Wired wrote:
“At Path Network, Coristine worked as a systems engineer from April to June of 2022, according to his now-deleted LinkedIn résumé. Path has at times listed as employees Eric Taylor, also known as Cosmo the God, a well-known former cybercriminal and member of the hacker group UGNazis, as well as Matthew Flannery, an Australian convicted hacker whom police allege was a member of the hacker group LulzSec. It’s unclear whether Coristine worked at Path concurrently with those hackers, and WIRED found no evidence that either Coristine or other Path employees engaged in illegal activity while at the company.”
The founder of Path is a young man named Marshal Webb. I wrote about Webb back in 2016, in a story about a DDoS defense company he co-founded called BackConnect Security LLC. On September 20, 2016, KrebsOnSecurity published data showing that the company had a history of hijacking Internet address space that belonged to others.
Less than 24 hours after that story ran, KrebsOnSecurity.com was hit with the biggest DDoS attack the Internet had ever seen at the time. That sustained attack kept this site offline for nearly 4 days.
The other founder of BackConnect Security LLC was Tucker Preston, a Georgia man who pleaded guilty in 2020 to paying a DDoS-for-hire service to launch attacks against others.
The aforementioned Path employee Eric Taylor pleaded guilty in 2017 to charges including an attack on our home in 2013. Taylor was among several men involved in making a false report to my local police department about a supposed hostage situation at our residence in Virginia. In response, a heavily-armed police force surrounded my home and put me in handcuffs at gunpoint before the police realized it was all a dangerous hoax known as “swatting.”
CosmoTheGod rocketed to Internet infamy in 2013 when he and a number of other hackers set up the Web site exposed[dot]su, which “doxed” dozens of public officials and celebrities by publishing the address, Social Security numbers and other personal information on the former First Lady Michelle Obama, the then-director of the FBI and the U.S. attorney general, among others. The group also swatted many of the people they doxed.
Wired noted that Coristine only worked at Path for a few months in 2022, but the story didn’t mention why his tenure was so short. A screenshot shared on the website pathtruths.com includes a snippet of conversations in June 2022 between Path employees discussing Coristine’s firing.
According to that record, Path founder Marshal Webb dismissed Coristine for leaking internal documents to a competitor. Not long after Coristine’s termination, someone leaked an abundance of internal Path documents and conversations. Among other things, those chats revealed that one of Path’s technicians was a Canadian man named Curtis Gervais who was convicted in 2017 of perpetrating dozens of swatting attacks and fake bomb threats — including at least two attempts against our home in 2014.
A snippet of text from an internal Path chat room, wherein members discuss the reason for Coristine’s termination: Allegedly, leaking internal company information. Source: Pathtruths.com.
On May 11, 2024, Rivage posted on a Discord channel for a DDoS protection service that is chiefly marketed to members of The Com. Rivage expressed frustration with his time spent on Com-based communities, suggesting that its profitability had been oversold.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of money to be made in the com,” Rivage lamented. “I’m not buying Heztner [servers] to set up some com VPN.”
Rivage largely stopped posting messages on Com channels after that. Wired reports that Coristine subsequently spent three months last summer working at Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant startup.
The trouble with all this is that even if someone sincerely intends to exit The Com after years of consorting with cybercriminals, they are often still subject to personal attacks, harassment and hacking long after they have left the scene.
That’s because a huge part of Com culture involves harassing, swatting and hacking other members of the community. These internecine attacks are often for financial gain, but just as frequently they are perpetrated by cybercrime groups to exact retribution from or assert dominance over rival gangs.
Experts say it is extremely difficult for former members of violent street gangs to gain a security clearance needed to view sensitive or classified information held by the U.S. government. That’s because ex-gang members are highly susceptible to extortion and coercion from current members of the same gang, and that alone presents an unacceptable security risk for intelligence agencies.
And make no mistake: The Com is the English-language cybercriminal hacking equivalent of a violent street gang. KrebsOnSecurity has published numerous stories detailing how feuds within the community periodically spill over into real-world violence.
When Coristine’s name surfaced in Wired‘s report this week, members of The Com immediately took notice. In the following segment from a February 5, 2025 chat in a Com-affiliated hosting provider, members criticized Rivage’s skills, and discussed harassing his family and notifying authorities about incriminating accusations that may or may not be true.
2025-02-05 16:29:44 UTC vperked#0 they got this nigga on indiatimes man
2025-02-05 16:29:46 UTC alexaloo#0 Their cropping is worse than AI could have done
2025-02-05 16:29:48 UTC hebeatsme#0 bro who is that
2025-02-05 16:29:53 UTC hebeatsme#0 yalla re talking about
2025-02-05 16:29:56 UTC xewdy#0 edward
2025-02-05 16:29:56 UTC .yarrb#0 rivagew
2025-02-05 16:29:57 UTC vperked#0 Rivarge
2025-02-05 16:29:57 UTC xewdy#0 diamondcdm
2025-02-05 16:29:59 UTC vperked#0 i cant spell it
2025-02-05 16:30:00 UTC hebeatsme#0 rivage
2025-02-05 16:30:08 UTC .yarrb#0 yes
2025-02-05 16:30:14 UTC hebeatsme#0 i have him added
2025-02-05 16:30:20 UTC hebeatsme#0 hes on discord still
2025-02-05 16:30:47 UTC .yarrb#0 hes focused on stroking zaddy elon
2025-02-05 16:30:47 UTC vperked#0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Coristine
2025-02-05 16:30:50 UTC vperked#0 no fucking way
2025-02-05 16:30:53 UTC vperked#0 they even made a wiki for him
2025-02-05 16:30:55 UTC vperked#0 LOOOL
2025-02-05 16:31:05 UTC hebeatsme#0 no way
2025-02-05 16:31:08 UTC hebeatsme#0 hes not a good dev either
2025-02-05 16:31:14 UTC hebeatsme#0 like????
2025-02-05 16:31:22 UTC hebeatsme#0 has to be fake
2025-02-05 16:31:24 UTC xewdy#0 and theyre saying ts
2025-02-05 16:31:29 UTC xewdy#0 like ok bro
2025-02-05 16:31:51 UTC .yarrb#0 now i wanna know what all the other devs are like…
2025-02-05 16:32:00 UTC vperked#0 “`Coristine used the moniker “bigballs” on LinkedIn and @Edwardbigballer on Twitter, according to The Daily Dot.[“`
2025-02-05 16:32:05 UTC vperked#0 LOL
2025-02-05 16:32:06 UTC hebeatsme#0 lmfaooo
2025-02-05 16:32:07 UTC vperked#0 bro
2025-02-05 16:32:10 UTC hebeatsme#0 bro
2025-02-05 16:32:17 UTC hebeatsme#0 has to be fake right
2025-02-05 16:32:22 UTC .yarrb#0 does it mention Rivage?
2025-02-05 16:32:23 UTC xewdy#0 He previously worked for NeuraLink, a brain computer interface company led by Elon Musk
2025-02-05 16:32:26 UTC xewdy#0 bro what
2025-02-05 16:32:27 UTC alexaloo#0 I think your current occupation gives you a good insight of what probably goes on
2025-02-05 16:32:29 UTC hebeatsme#0 bullshit man
2025-02-05 16:32:33 UTC xewdy#0 this nigga got hella secrets
2025-02-05 16:32:37 UTC hebeatsme#0 rivage couldnt print hello world
2025-02-05 16:32:42 UTC hebeatsme#0 if his life was on the line
2025-02-05 16:32:50 UTC xewdy#0 nigga worked for neuralink
2025-02-05 16:32:54 UTC hebeatsme#0 bullshit
2025-02-05 16:33:06 UTC Nashville Dispatch ##0000 ||@PD Ping||
2025-02-05 16:33:07 UTC hebeatsme#0 must have killed all those test pigs with some bugs
2025-02-05 16:33:24 UTC hebeatsme#0 ur telling me the rivage who failed to start a company
2025-02-05 16:33:28 UTC hebeatsme#0 https://cdn.camp
2025-02-05 16:33:32 UTC hebeatsme#0 who didnt pay for servers
2025-02-05 16:33:34 UTC hebeatsme#0 ?
2025-02-05 16:33:42 UTC hebeatsme#0 was too cheap
2025-02-05 16:33:44 UTC vperked#0 yes
2025-02-05 16:33:50 UTC hebeatsme#0 like??
2025-02-05 16:33:53 UTC hebeatsme#0 it aint adding up
2025-02-05 16:33:56 UTC alexaloo#0 He just needed to find his calling idiot.
2025-02-05 16:33:58 UTC alexaloo#0 He found it.
2025-02-05 16:33:59 UTC hebeatsme#0 bro
2025-02-05 16:34:01 UTC alexaloo#0 Cope in a river dude
2025-02-05 16:34:04 UTC hebeatsme#0 he cant make good money right
2025-02-05 16:34:08 UTC hebeatsme#0 doge is about efficiency
2025-02-05 16:34:11 UTC hebeatsme#0 he should make $1/he
2025-02-05 16:34:15 UTC hebeatsme#0 $1/hr
2025-02-05 16:34:25 UTC hebeatsme#0 and be whipped for better code
2025-02-05 16:34:26 UTC vperked#0 prolly makes more than us
2025-02-05 16:34:35 UTC vperked#0 with his dad too
2025-02-05 16:34:52 UTC hebeatsme#0 time to report him for fraud
2025-02-05 16:34:54 UTC hebeatsme#0 to donald trump
2025-02-05 16:35:04 UTC hebeatsme#0 rivage participated in sim swap hacks in 2018
2025-02-05 16:35:08 UTC hebeatsme#0 put that on his wiki
2025-02-05 16:35:10 UTC hebeatsme#0 thanks
2025-02-05 16:35:15 UTC hebeatsme#0 and in 2021
2025-02-05 16:35:17 UTC hebeatsme#0 thanks
2025-02-05 16:35:19 UTC chainofcommand#0 i dont think they’ll care tbh
Given the speed with which Musk’s DOGE team was allowed access to such critical government databases, it strains credulity that Coristine could have been properly cleared beforehand. After all, he’d recently been dismissed from a job for allegedly leaking internal company information to outsiders.
According to the national security adjudication guidelines (PDF) released by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), eligibility determinations take into account a person’s stability, trustworthiness, reliability, discretion, character, honesty, judgment, and ability to protect classified information.
The DNI policy further states that “eligibility for covered individuals shall be granted only when facts and circumstances indicate that eligibility is clearly consistent with the national security interests of the United States, and any doubt shall be resolved in favor of national security.”
On Thursday, 25-year-old DOGE staff member Marko Elez resigned after being linked to a deleted social media account that advocated racism and eugenics. Elez resigned after The Wall Street Journal asked the White House about his connection to the account.
“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” the account posted in July. “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” the account wrote on X in September. “Normalize Indian hate,” the account wrote the same month, in reference to a post noting the prevalence of people from India in Silicon Valley.
Elez’s resignation came a day after the Department of Justice agreed to limit the number of DOGE employees who have access to federal payment systems. The DOJ said access would be limited to two people, Elez and Tom Krause, the CEO of a company called Cloud Software Group.
Earlier today, Musk said he planned to rehire Elez after President Trump and Vice President JD Vance reportedly endorsed the idea. Speaking at The White House today, Trump said he wasn’t concerned about the security of personal information and other data accessed by DOGE, adding that he was “very proud of the job that this group of young people” are doing.
A White House official told Reuters on Wednesday that Musk and his engineers have appropriate security clearances and are operating in “full compliance with federal law, appropriate security clearances, and as employees of the relevant agencies, not as outside advisors or entities.”
NPR reports Trump added that his administration’s cost-cutting efforts would soon turn to the Education Department and the Pentagon, “where he suggested without evidence that there could be ‘trillions’ of dollars in wasted spending within the $6.75 trillion the federal government spent in fiscal year 2024.”
GOP leaders in the Republican-controlled House and Senate have largely shrugged about Musk’s ongoing efforts to seize control over federal databases, dismantle agencies mandated by Congress, freeze federal spending on a range of already-appropriated government programs, and threaten workers with layoffs.
Meanwhile, multiple parties have sued to stop DOGE’s activities. ABC News says a federal judge was to rule today on whether DOGE should be blocked from accessing Department of Labor records, following a lawsuit alleging Musk’s team sought to illegally access highly sensitive data, including medical information, from the federal government.
At least 13 state attorneys general say they plan to file a lawsuit to stop DOGE from accessing federal payment systems containing Americans’ sensitive personal information, reports The Associated Press.
Reuters reported Thursday that the U.S. Treasury Department had agreed not to give Musk’s team access to its payment systems while a judge is hearing arguments in a lawsuit by employee unions and retirees alleging Musk illegally searched those records.
Ars Technica writes that The Department of Education (DoE) was sued Friday by a California student association demanding an “immediate stop” to DOGE’s “unlawfully” digging through student loan data to potentially dismantle the DoE.
New mobile apps from the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek have remained among the top three “free” downloads for Apple and Google devices since their debut on Jan. 25, 2025. But experts caution that many of DeepSeek’s design choices — such as using hard-coded encryption keys, and sending unencrypted user and device data to Chinese companies — introduce a number of glaring security and privacy risks.
Public interest in the DeepSeek AI chat apps swelled following widespread media reports that the upstart Chinese AI firm had managed to match the abilities of cutting-edge chatbots while using a fraction of the specialized computer chips that leading AI companies rely on. As of this writing, DeepSeek is the third most-downloaded “free” app on the Apple store, and #1 on Google Play.
DeepSeek’s rapid rise caught the attention of the mobile security firm NowSecure, a Chicago-based company that helps clients screen mobile apps for security and privacy threats. In a teardown of the DeepSeek app published today, NowSecure urged organizations to remove the DeepSeek iOS mobile app from their environments, citing security concerns.
NowSecure founder Andrew Hoog said they haven’t yet concluded an in-depth analysis of the DeepSeek app for Android devices, but that there is little reason to believe its basic design would be functionally much different.
Hoog told KrebsOnSecurity there were a number of qualities about the DeepSeek iOS app that suggest the presence of deep-seated security and privacy risks. For starters, he said, the app collects an awful lot of data about the user’s device.
“They are doing some very interesting things that are on the edge of advanced device fingerprinting,” Hoog said, noting that one property of the app tracks the device’s name — which for many iOS devices defaults to the customer’s name followed by the type of iOS device.
The device information shared, combined with the user’s Internet address and data gathered from mobile advertising companies, could be used to deanonymize users of the DeepSeek iOS app, NowSecure warned. The report notes that DeepSeek communicates with Volcengine, a cloud platform developed by ByteDance (the makers of TikTok), although NowSecure said it wasn’t clear if the data is just leveraging ByteDance’s digital transformation cloud service or if the declared information share extends further between the two companies.
Image: NowSecure.
Perhaps more concerning, NowSecure said the iOS app transmits device information “in the clear,” without any encryption to encapsulate the data. This means the data being handled by the app could be intercepted, read, and even modified by anyone who has access to any of the networks that carry the app’s traffic.
“The DeepSeek iOS app globally disables App Transport Security (ATS) which is an iOS platform level protection that prevents sensitive data from being sent over unencrypted channels,” the report observed. “Since this protection is disabled, the app can (and does) send unencrypted data over the internet.”
Hoog said the app does selectively encrypt portions of the responses coming from DeepSeek servers. But they also found it uses an insecure and now deprecated encryption algorithm called 3DES (aka Triple DES), and that the developers had hard-coded the encryption key. That means the cryptographic key needed to decipher those data fields can be extracted from the app itself.
There were other, less alarming security and privacy issues highlighted in the report, but Hoog said he’s confident there are additional, unseen security concerns lurking within the app’s code.
“When we see people exhibit really simplistic coding errors, as you dig deeper there are usually a lot more issues,” Hoog said. “There is virtually no priority around security or privacy. Whether cultural, or mandated by China, or a witting choice, taken together they point to significant lapse in security and privacy controls, and that puts companies at risk.”
Apparently, plenty of others share this view. Axios reported on January 30 that U.S. congressional offices are being warned not to use the app.
“[T]hreat actors are already exploiting DeepSeek to deliver malicious software and infect devices,” read the notice from the chief administrative officer for the House of Representatives. “To mitigate these risks, the House has taken security measures to restrict DeepSeek’s functionality on all House-issued devices.”
TechCrunch reports that Italy and Taiwan have already moved to ban DeepSeek over security concerns. Bloomberg writes that The Pentagon has blocked access to DeepSeek. CNBC says NASA also banned employees from using the service, as did the U.S. Navy.
Beyond security concerns tied to the DeepSeek iOS app, there are indications the Chinese AI company may be playing fast and loose with the data that it collects from and about users. On January 29, researchers at Wiz said they discovered a publicly accessible database linked to DeepSeek that exposed “a significant volume of chat history, backend data and sensitive information, including log streams, API secrets, and operational details.”
“More critically, the exposure allowed for full database control and potential privilege escalation within the DeepSeek environment, without any authentication or defense mechanism to the outside world,” Wiz wrote. [Full disclosure: Wiz is currently an advertiser on this website.]
KrebsOnSecurity sought comment on the report from DeepSeek and from Apple. This story will be updated with any substantive replies.
Data Privacy Week is here, and there’s no better time to shine a spotlight on one of the biggest players in the personal information economy: data brokers. These entities collect, buy, and sell hundreds—sometimes thousands—of data points on individuals like you. But how do they manage to gather so much information, and for what purpose? From your browsing habits and purchase history to your location data and even more intimate details, these digital middlemen piece together surprisingly comprehensive profiles. The real question is: where are they getting it all, and why is your personal data so valuable to them? Let’s unravel the mystery behind the data broker industry.
Data brokers aggregate user info from various sources on the internet. They collect, collate, package, and sometimes even analyze this data to create a holistic and coherent version of you online. This data then gets put up for sale to nearly anyone who’ll buy it. That can include marketers, private investigators, tech companies, and sometimes law enforcement as well. They’ll also sell to spammers and scammers. (Those bad actors need to get your contact info from somewhere — data brokers are one way to get that and more.)
And that list of potential buyers goes on, which includes but isn’t limited to:
These companies and social media platforms use your data to better understand target demographics and the content with which they interact. While the practice isn’t unethical in and of itself (personalizing user experiences and creating more convenient UIs are usually cited as the primary reasons for it), it does make your data vulnerable to malicious attacks targeted toward big-tech servers.
Most of your online activities are related. Devices like your phone, laptop, tablets, and even fitness watches are linked to each other. Moreover, you might use one email ID for various accounts and subscriptions. This online interconnectedness makes it easier for data brokers to create a cohesive user profile.
Mobile phone apps are the most common way for data brokerage firms to collect your data. You might have countless apps for various purposes, such as financial transactions, health and fitness, or social media.
A number of these apps usually fall under the umbrella of the same or subsidiary family of apps, all of which work toward collecting and supplying data to big tech platforms. Programs like Google’s AdSense make it easier for developers to monetize their apps in exchange for the user information they collect.
Data brokers also collect data points like your home address, full name, phone number, and date of birth. They have automated scraping tools to quickly collect relevant information from public records (think sales of real estate, marriages, divorces, voter registration, and so on).
Lastly, data brokers can gather data from other third parties that track your cookies or even place trackers or cookies on your browsers. Cookies are small data files that track your online activities when visiting different websites. They track your IP address and browsing history, which third parties can exploit. Cookies are also the reason you see personalized ads and products.
Data brokers collate your private information into one package and sell it to “people search” websites. As mentioned above, practically anyone can access these websites and purchase extensive consumer data, for groups of people and individuals alike.
Next, marketing and sales firms are some of data brokers’ biggest clients. These companies purchase massive data sets from data brokers to research your data profile. They have advanced algorithms to segregate users into various consumer groups and target you specifically. Their predictive algorithms can suggest personalized ads and products to generate higher lead generation and conversation percentages for their clients.
We tend to accept the terms and conditions that various apps ask us to accept without thinking twice or reading the fine print. You probably cannot proceed without letting the app track certain data or giving your personal information. To a certain extent, we trade some of our privacy for convenience. This becomes public information, and apps and data brokers collect, track, and use our data however they please while still complying with the law.
There is no comprehensive privacy law in the U.S. on a federal level. This allows data brokers to collect personal information and condense it into marketing insights. While not all methods of gathering private data are legal, it is difficult to track the activities of data brokers online (especially on the dark web). As technology advances, there are also easier ways to harvest and exploit data.
As of March 2024, 15 states in the U.S. have data privacy laws in place. That includes California, Virginia, Connecticut, Colorado, Utah, Iowa, Indiana, Tennessee, Oregon, Montana, Texas, Delaware, Florida, New Jersey, and New Hampshire.[i] The laws vary by state, yet generally, they grant rights to individuals around the collection, use, and disclosure of their personal data by businesses.
However, these laws make exceptions for certain types of data and certain types of collectors. In short, these laws aren’t absolute.
Some data brokers let you remove your information from their websites. There are also extensive guides available online that list the method by which you can opt-out of some of the biggest data brokering firms. For example, a guide by Griffin Boyce, the systems administrator at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, provides detailed information on how to opt-out of a long list of data broker companies.
Yet the list of data brokers is long. Cleaning up your personal data online can quickly eat up your time, as it requires you to reach out to multiple data brokers and opt-out.
Rather than removing yourself one by one from the host of data broker sites out there, you have a solid option: our Personal Data Cleanup.
Personal Data Cleanup scans data broker sites and shows you which ones are selling your personal info. It also provides guidance on how you can remove your data from those sites. And if you want to save time on manually removing that info, you have options. Our McAfee+ Advanced and Ultimate plans come with full-service Personal Data Cleanup, which sends requests to remove your data automatically.
If the thought of your personal info getting bought and sold in such a public way bothers you, our Personal Data Cleanup can put you back in charge of it.
[i] https://pro.bloomberglaw.com/insights/privacy/state-privacy-legislation-tracker/
The post How Data Brokers Sell Your Identity appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Image: Shutterstock. Greg Meland.
President Trump last week issued a flurry of executive orders that upended a number of government initiatives focused on improving the nation’s cybersecurity posture. The president fired all advisors from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Safety Review Board, called for the creation of a strategic cryptocurrency reserve, and voided a Biden administration action that sought to reduce the risks that artificial intelligence poses to consumers, workers and national security.
On his first full day back in the White House, Trump dismissed all 15 advisory committee members of the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), a nonpartisan government entity established in February 2022 with a mandate to investigate the causes of major cybersecurity events. The CSRB has so far produced three detailed reports, including an analysis of the Log4Shell vulnerability crisis, attacks from the cybercrime group LAPSUS$, and the 2023 Microsoft Exchange Online breach.
The CSRB was in the midst of an inquiry into cyber intrusions uncovered recently across a broad spectrum of U.S. telecommunications providers at the hands of Chinese state-sponsored hackers. One of the CSRB’s most recognizable names is Chris Krebs (no relation), the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Krebs was fired by President Trump in November 2020 for declaring the presidential contest was the most secure in American history, and for refuting Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, confirmed by the U.S. Senate last week as the new director of the DHS, criticized CISA at her confirmation hearing, TheRecord reports.
Noem told lawmakers CISA needs to be “much more effective, smaller, more nimble, to really fulfill their mission,” which she said should be focused on hardening federal IT systems and hunting for digital intruders. Noem said the agency’s work on fighting misinformation shows it has “gotten far off mission” and involved “using their resources in ways that was never intended.”
“The misinformation and disinformation that they have stuck their toe into and meddled with, should be refocused back onto what their job is,” she said.
Moses Frost, a cybersecurity instructor with the SANS Institute, compared the sacking of the CSRB members to firing all of the experts at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) while they’re in the middle of an investigation into a string of airline disasters.
“I don’t recall seeing an ‘NTSB Board’ being fired during the middle of a plane crash investigation,” Frost said in a recent SANS newsletter. “I can say that the attackers in the phone companies will not stop because the review board has gone away. We do need to figure out how these attacks occurred, and CISA did appear to be doing some good for the vast majority of the federal systems.”
Speaking of transportation, The Record notes that Transportation Security Administration chief David Pekoske was fired despite overseeing critical cybersecurity improvements across pipeline, rail and aviation sectors. Pekoske was appointed by Trump in 2017 and had his 5-year tenure renewed in 2022 by former President Joe Biden.
Shortly after being sworn in for a second time, Trump voided a Biden executive order that focused on supporting research and development in artificial intelligence. The previous administration’s order on AI was crafted with an eye toward managing the safety and security risks introduced by the technology. But a statement released by the White House said Biden’s approach to AI had hindered development, and that the United States would support AI systems that are “free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas,” to maintain leadership.
The Trump administration issued its own executive order on AI, which calls for an “AI Action Plan” to be led by the assistant to the president for science and technology, the White House “AI & crypto czar,” and the national security advisor. It also directs the White House to revise and reissue policies to federal agencies on the government’s acquisition and governance of AI “to ensure that harmful barriers to America’s AI leadership are eliminated.”
Trump’s AI & crypto czar is David Sacks, an entrepreneur and Silicon Valley venture capitalist who argues that the Biden administration’s approach to AI and cryptocurrency has driven innovation overseas. Sacks recently asserted that non-fungible cryptocurrency tokens and memecoins are neither securities nor commodities, but rather should be treated as “collectibles” like baseball cards and stamps.
There is already a legal definition of collectibles under the U.S. tax code that applies to things like art or antiques, which can be subject to high capital gains taxes. But Joe Hall, a capital markets attorney and partner at Davis Polk, told Fortune there are no market regulations that apply to collectibles under U.S. securities law. Hall said Sacks’ comments “suggest a viewpoint that it would not be appropriate to regulate these things the way we regulate securities.”
The new administration’s position makes sense considering that the Trump family is deeply and personally invested in a number of recent memecoin ventures that have attracted billions from investors. President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump each launched their own vanity memecoins this month, dubbed $TRUMP and $MELANIA.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday the market capitalization of $TRUMP stood at about $7 billion, down from a peak of near $15 billion, while $MELANIA is hovering somewhere in the $460 million mark. Just two months before the 2024 election, Trump’s three sons debuted a cryptocurrency token called World Liberty Financial.
Despite maintaining a considerable personal stake in how cryptocurrency is regulated, Trump issued an executive order on January 23 calling for a working group to be chaired by Sacks that would develop “a federal regulatory framework governing digital assets, including stablecoins,” and evaluate the creation of a “strategic national digital assets stockpile.”
Translation: Using taxpayer dollars to prop up the speculative, volatile, and highly risky cryptocurrency industry, which has been marked by endless scams, rug-pulls, 8-figure cyber heists, rampant fraud, and unrestrained innovations in money laundering.
Prior to the election, President Trump frequently vowed to use a second term to exact retribution against his perceived enemies. Part of that promise materialized in an executive order Trump issued last week titled “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” which decried “an unprecedented, third-world weaponization of prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process,” in the prosecution of more than 1,500 people who invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
On Jan. 21, Trump commuted the sentences of several leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were convicted of seditious conspiracy. He also issued “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,” which include those who assaulted law enforcement officers.
The New York Times reports “the language of the document suggests — but does not explicitly state — that the Trump administration review will examine the actions of local district attorneys or state officials, such as the district attorneys in Manhattan or Fulton County, Ga., or the New York attorney general, all of whom filed cases against President Trump.”
Another Trump order called “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” asserts:
“Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve,” the Trump administration alleged. “Under the guise of combatting ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation,’ the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate.”
Both of these executive orders have potential implications for security, privacy and civil liberties activists who have sought to track conspiracy theories and raise awareness about disinformation efforts on social media coming from U.S. adversaries.
In the wake of the 2020 election, Republicans created the House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Led by GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the committee’s stated purpose was to investigate alleged collusion between the Biden administration and tech companies to unconstitutionally shut down political speech.
The GOP committee focused much of its ire at members of the short-lived Disinformation Governance Board, an advisory board to DHS created in 2022 (the “combating misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation” quote from Trump’s executive order is a reference to the board’s stated mission). Conservative groups seized on social media posts made by the director of the board, who resigned after facing death threats. The board was dissolved by DHS soon after.
In his first administration, President Trump created a special prosecutor to probe the origins of the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives seeking to influence the 2016 election. Part of that inquiry examined evidence gathered by some of the world’s most renowned cybersecurity experts who identified frequent and unexplained communications between an email server used by the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s largest financial institutions.
Trump’s Special Prosecutor John Durham later subpoenaed and/or deposed dozens of security experts who’d collected, viewed or merely commented on the data. Similar harassment and deposition demands would come from lawyers for Alfa Bank. Durham ultimately indicted Michael Sussman, the former federal cybercrime prosecutor who reported the oddity to the FBI. Sussman was acquitted in May 2022. Last week, Trump appointed Durham to lead the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, NY.
Quinta Jurecic at Lawfare notes that while the executive actions are ominous, they are also vague, and could conceivably generate either a campaign of retaliation, or nothing at all.
“The two orders establish that there will be investigations but leave open the questions of what kind of investigations, what will be investigated, how long this will take, and what the consequences might be,” Jurecic wrote. “It is difficult to draw firm conclusions as to what to expect. Whether this ambiguity is intentional or the result of sloppiness or disagreement within Trump’s team, it has at least one immediate advantage as far as the president is concerned: generating fear among the broad universe of potential subjects of those investigations.”
On Friday, Trump moved to fire at least 17 inspectors general, the government watchdogs who conduct audits and investigations of executive branch actions, and who often uncover instances of government waste, fraud and abuse. Lawfare’s Jack Goldsmith argues that the removals are probably legal even though Trump defied a 2022 law that required congressional notice of the terminations, which Trump did not give.
“Trump probably acted lawfully, I think, because the notice requirement is probably unconstitutional,” Goldsmith wrote. “The real bite in the 2022 law, however, comes in the limitations it places on Trump’s power to replace the terminated IGs—limitations that I believe are constitutional. This aspect of the law will make it hard, but not impossible, for Trump to put loyalists atop the dozens of vacant IG offices around the executive branch. The ultimate fate of IG independence during Trump 2.0, however, depends less on legal protections than on whether Congress, which traditionally protects IGs, stands up for them now. Don’t hold your breath.”
Among the many Biden administration executive orders revoked by President Trump last week was an action from December 2021 establishing the United States Council on Transnational Organized Crime, which is charged with advising the White House on a range of criminal activities, including drug and weapons trafficking, migrant smuggling, human trafficking, cybercrime, intellectual property theft, money laundering, wildlife and timber trafficking, illegal fishing, and illegal mining.
So far, the White House doesn’t appear to have revoked an executive order that former President Biden issued less than a week before President Trump took office. On Jan. 16, 2025, Biden released a directive that focused on improving the security of federal agencies and contractors, and giving the government more power to sanction the hackers who target critical infrastructure.
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Microsoft today unleashed updates to plug a whopping 161 security vulnerabilities in Windows and related software, including three “zero-day” weaknesses that are already under active attack. Redmond’s inaugural Patch Tuesday of 2025 bundles more fixes than the company has shipped in one go since 2017.
Rapid7‘s Adam Barnett says January marks the fourth consecutive month where Microsoft has published zero-day vulnerabilities on Patch Tuesday without evaluating any of them as critical severity at time of publication. Today also saw the publication of nine critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities.
The Microsoft flaws already seeing active attacks include CVE-2025-21333, CVE-2025-21334 and, you guessed it– CVE-2025-21335. These are sequential because all reside in Windows Hyper-V, a component that is heavily embedded in modern Windows 11 operating systems and used for security features including device guard and credential guard.
Tenable’s Satnam Narang says little is known about the in-the-wild exploitation of these flaws, apart from the fact that they are all “privilege escalation” vulnerabilities. Narang said we tend to see a lot of elevation of privilege bugs exploited in the wild as zero-days in Patch Tuesday because it’s not always initial access to a system that’s a challenge for attackers as they have various avenues in their pursuit.
“As elevation of privilege bugs, they’re being used as part of post-compromise activity, where an attacker has already accessed a target system,” he said. “It’s kind of like if an attacker is able to enter a secure building, they’re unable to access more secure parts of the facility because they have to prove that they have clearance. In this case, they’re able to trick the system into believing they should have clearance.”
Several bugs addressed today earned CVSS (threat rating) scores of 9.8 out of a possible 10, including CVE-2025-21298, a weakness in Windows that could allow attackers to run arbitrary code by getting a target to open a malicious .rtf file, documents typically opened on Office applications like Microsoft Word. Microsoft has rated this flaw “exploitation more likely.”
Ben Hopkins at Immersive Labs called attention to the CVE-2025-21311, a 9.8 “critical” bug in Windows NTLMv1 (NT LAN Manager version 1), an older Microsoft authentication protocol that is still used by many organizations.
“What makes this vulnerability so impactful is the fact that it is remotely exploitable, so attackers can reach the compromised machine(s) over the internet, and the attacker does not need significant knowledge or skills to achieve repeatable success with the same payload across any vulnerable component,” Hopkins wrote.
Kev Breen at Immersive points to an interesting flaw (CVE-2025-21210) that Microsoft fixed in its full disk encryption suite Bitlocker that the software giant has dubbed “exploitation more likely.” Specifically, this bug holds out the possibility that in some situations the hibernation image created when one closes the laptop lid on an open Windows session may not be fully encrypted and could be recovered in plain text.
“Hibernation images are used when a laptop goes to sleep and contains the contents that were stored in RAM at the moment the device powered down,” Breen noted. “This presents a significant potential impact as RAM can contain sensitive data (such as passwords, credentials and PII) that may have been in open documents or browser sessions and can all be recovered with free tools from hibernation files.”
Tenable’s Narang also highlighted a trio of vulnerabilities in Microsoft Access fixed this month and credited to Unpatched.ai, a security research effort that is aided by artificial intelligence looking for vulnerabilities in code. Tracked as CVE-2025-21186, CVE-2025-21366, and CVE-2025-21395, these are remote code execution bugs that are exploitable if an attacker convinces a target to download and run a malicious file through social engineering. Unpatched.ai was also credited with discovering a flaw in the December 2024 Patch Tuesday release (CVE-2024-49142).
“Automated vulnerability detection using AI has garnered a lot of attention recently, so it’s noteworthy to see this service being credited with finding bugs in Microsoft products,” Narang observed. “It may be the first of many in 2025.”
If you’re a Windows user who has automatic updates turned off and haven’t updated in a while, it’s probably time to play catch up. Please consider backing up important files and/or the entire hard drive before updating. And if you run into any problems installing this month’s patch batch, drop a line in the comments below, please.
Further reading on today’s patches from Microsoft:
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Private tech companies gather tremendous amounts of user data. These companies can afford to let you use social media platforms free of charge because it’s paid for by your data, attention, and time.
Big tech derives most of its profits by selling your attention to advertisers — a well-known business model. Various documentaries (like Netflix’s “The Social Dilemma”) have tried to get to the bottom of the complex algorithms that big tech companies employ to mine and analyze user data for the benefit of third-party advertisers.
Tech companies benefit from personal info by being able to provide personalized ads. When you click “yes” at the end of a terms and conditions agreement found on some web pages, you might be allowing the companies to collect the following data:
For someone unfamiliar with privacy issues, it is important to understand the extent of big tech’s tracking and data collection. After these companies collect data, all this info can be supplied to third-party businesses or used to improve user experience.
The problem with this is that big tech has blurred the line between collecting customer data and violating user privacy in some cases. While tracking what content you interact with can be justified under the garb of personalizing the content you see, big tech platforms have been known to go too far. Prominent social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn have faced legal trouble for accessing personal user data like private messages and saved photos.
The info you provide helps build an accurate character profile and turns it into knowledge that gives actionable insights to businesses. Private data usage can be classified into three cases: selling it to data brokers, using it to improve marketing, or enhancing customer experience.
To sell your info to data brokers
Along with big data, another industry has seen rapid growth: data brokers. Data brokers buy, analyze, and package your data. Companies that collect large amounts of data on their users stand to profit from this service. Selling data to brokers is an important revenue stream for big tech companies.
Advertisers and businesses benefit from increased info on their consumers, creating a high demand for your info. The problem here is that companies like Facebook and Alphabet (Google’s parent company) have been known to mine massive amounts of user data for the sake of their advertisers.
To personalize marketing efforts
Marketing can be highly personalized thanks to the availability of large amounts of consumer data. Tracking your response to marketing campaigns can help businesses alter or improve certain aspects of their campaign to drive better results.
The problem is that most AI-based algorithms are incapable of assessing when they should stop collecting or using your info. After a point, users run the risk of being constantly subjected to intrusive ads and other unconsented marketing campaigns that pop up frequently.
To cater to the customer experience
Analyzing consumer behavior through reviews, feedback, and recommendations can help improve customer experience. Businesses have access to various facets of data that can be analyzed to show them how to meet consumer demands. This might help improve any part of a consumer’s interaction with the company, from designing special offers and discounts to improving customer relationships.
For most social media platforms, the goal is to curate a personalized feed that appeals to users and allows them to spend more time on the app. When left unmonitored, the powerful algorithms behind these social media platforms can repeatedly subject you to the same kind of content from different creators.
Here are the big tech companies that collect and mine the most user data.
Users need a comprehensive data privacy solution to tackle the rampant, large-scale data mining carried out by big tech platforms. While targeted advertisements and easily found items are beneficial, many of these companies collect and mine user data through several channels simultaneously, exploiting them in several ways.
It’s important to ensure your personal info is protected. Protection solutions like McAfee’s Personal Data Cleanup feature can help. It scours the web for traces of your personal info and helps remove it for your online privacy.
McAfee+ provides antivirus software for all your digital devices and a secure VPN connection to avoid exposure to malicious third parties while browsing the internet. Our Identity Monitoring and personal data removal solutions further remove gaps in your devices’ security systems.
With our data protection and custom guidance (complete with a protection score for each platform and tips to keep you safer), you can be sure that your internet identity is protected.
The post What Personal Data Do Companies Track? appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Besieged by scammers seeking to phish user accounts over the telephone, Apple and Google frequently caution that they will never reach out unbidden to users this way. However, new details about the internal operations of a prolific voice phishing gang show the group routinely abuses legitimate services at Apple and Google to force a variety of outbound communications to their users, including emails, automated phone calls and system-level messages sent to all signed-in devices.
Image: Shutterstock, iHaMoo.
KrebsOnSecurity recently told the saga of a cryptocurrency investor named Tony who was robbed of more than $4.7 million in an elaborate voice phishing attack. In Tony’s ordeal, the crooks appear to have initially contacted him via Google Assistant, an AI-based service that can engage in two-way conversations. The phishers also abused legitimate Google services to send Tony an email from google.com, and to send a Google account recovery prompt to all of his signed-in devices.
Today’s story pivots off of Tony’s heist and new details shared by a scammer to explain how these voice phishing groups are abusing a legitimate Apple telephone support line to generate “account confirmation” message prompts from Apple to their customers.
Before we get to the Apple scam in detail, we need to revisit Tony’s case. The phishing domain used to steal roughly $4.7 million in cryptocurrencies from Tony was verify-trezor[.]io. This domain was featured in a writeup from February 2024 by the security firm Lookout, which found it was one of dozens being used by a prolific and audacious voice phishing group it dubbed “Crypto Chameleon.”
Crypto Chameleon was brazenly trying to voice phish employees at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as well as those working at the cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Binance. Lookout researchers discovered multiple voice phishing groups were using a new phishing kit that closely mimicked the single sign-on pages for Okta and other authentication providers.
As we’ll see in a moment, that phishing kit is operated and rented out by a cybercriminal known as “Perm” a.k.a. “Annie.” Perm is the current administrator of Star Fraud, one of the more consequential cybercrime communities on Telegram and one that has emerged as a foundry of innovation in voice phishing attacks.
A review of the many messages that Perm posted to Star Fraud and other Telegram channels showed they worked closely with another cybercriminal who went by the handles “Aristotle” and just “Stotle.”
It is not clear what caused the rift, but at some point last year Stotle decided to turn on his erstwhile business partner Perm, sharing extremely detailed videos, tutorials and secrets that shed new light on how these phishing panels operate.
Stotle explained that the division of spoils from each robbery is decided in advance by all participants. Some co-conspirators will be paid a set fee for each call, while others are promised a percentage of any overall amount stolen. The person in charge of managing or renting out the phishing panel to others will generally take a percentage of each theft, which in Perm’s case is 10 percent.
When the phishing group settles on a target of interest, the scammers will create and join a new Discord channel. This allows each logged on member to share what is currently on their screen, and these screens are tiled in a series of boxes so that everyone can see all other call participant screens at once.
Each participant in the call has a specific role, including:
-The Caller: The person speaking and trying to social engineer the target.
-The Operator: The individual managing the phishing panel, silently moving the victim from page to page.
-The Drainer: The person who logs into compromised accounts to drain the victim’s funds.
-The Owner: The phishing panel owner, who will frequently listen in on and participate in scam calls.
In one video of a live voice phishing attack shared by Stotle, scammers using Perm’s panel targeted a musician in California. Throughout the video, we can see Perm monitoring the conversation and operating the phishing panel in the upper right corner of the screen.
In the first step of the attack, they peppered the target’s Apple device with notifications from Apple by attempting to reset his password. Then a “Michael Keen” called him, spoofing Apple’s phone number and saying they were with Apple’s account recovery team.
The target told Michael that someone was trying to change his password, which Michael calmly explained they would investigate. Michael said he was going to send a prompt to the man’s device, and proceeded to place a call to an automated line that answered as Apple support saying, “I’d like to send a consent notification to your Apple devices. Do I have permission to do that?”
In this segment of the video, we can see the operator of the panel is calling the real Apple customer support phone number 800-275-2273, but they are doing so by spoofing the target’s phone number (the victim’s number is redacted in the video above). That’s because calling this support number from a phone number tied to an Apple account and selecting “1” for “yes” will then send an alert from Apple that displays the following message on all associated devices:
Calling the Apple support number 800-275-2273 from a phone number tied to an Apple account will cause a prompt similar to this one to appear on all connected Apple devices.
KrebsOnSecurity asked two different security firms to test this using the caller ID spoofing service shown in Perm’s video, and sure enough calling that 800 number for Apple by spoofing my phone number as the source caused the Apple Account Confirmation to pop up on all of my signed-in Apple devices.
In essence, the voice phishers are using an automated Apple phone support line to send notifications from Apple and to trick people into thinking they’re really talking with Apple. The phishing panel video leaked by Stotle shows this technique fooled the target, who felt completely at ease that he was talking to Apple after receiving the support prompt on his iPhone.
“Okay, so this really is Apple,” the man said after receiving the alert from Apple. “Yeah, that’s definitely not me trying to reset my password.”
“Not a problem, we can go ahead and take care of this today,” Michael replied. “I’ll go ahead and prompt your device with the steps to close out this ticket. Before I do that, I do highly suggest that you change your password in the settings app of your device.”
The target said they weren’t sure exactly how to do that. Michael replied “no problem,” and then described how to change the account password, which the man said he did on his own device. At this point, the musician was still in control of his iCloud account.
“Password is changed,” the man said. “I don’t know what that was, but I appreciate the call.”
“Yup,” Michael replied, setting up the killer blow. “I’ll go ahead and prompt you with the next step to close out this ticket. Please give me one moment.”
The target then received a text message that referenced information about his account, stating that he was in a support call with Michael. Included in the message was a link to a website that mimicked Apple’s iCloud login page — 17505-apple[.]com. Once the target navigated to the phishing page, the video showed Perm’s screen in the upper right corner opening the phishing page from their end.
“Oh okay, now I log in with my Apple ID?,” the man asked.
“Yup, then just follow the steps it requires, and if you need any help, just let me know,” Michael replied.
As the victim typed in their Apple password and one-time passcode at the fake Apple site, Perm’s screen could be seen in the background logging into the victim’s iCloud account.
It’s unclear whether the phishers were able to steal any cryptocurrency from the victim in this case, who did not respond to requests for comment. However, shortly after this video was recorded, someone leaked several music recordings stolen from the victim’s iCloud account.
At the conclusion of the call, Michael offered to configure the victim’s Apple profile so that any further changes to the account would need to happen in person at a physical Apple store. This appears to be one of several scripted ploys used by these voice phishers to gain and maintain the target’s confidence.
A tutorial shared by Stotle titled “Social Engineering Script” includes a number of tips for scam callers that can help establish trust or a rapport with their prey. When the callers are impersonating Coinbase employees, for example, they will offer to sign the user up for the company’s free security email newsletter.
“Also, for your security, we are able to subscribe you to Coinbase Bytes, which will basically give you updates to your email about data breaches and updates to your Coinbase account,” the script reads. “So we should have gone ahead and successfully subscribed you, and you should have gotten an email confirmation. Please let me know if that is the case. Alright, perfect.”
In reality, all they are doing is entering the target’s email address into Coinbase’s public email newsletter signup page, but it’s a remarkably effective technique because it demonstrates to the would-be victim that the caller has the ability to send emails from Coinbase.com.
Asked to comment for this story, Apple said there has been no breach, hack, or technical exploit of iCloud or Apple services, and that the company is continuously adding new protections to address new and emerging threats. For example, it said it has implemented rate limiting for multi-factor authentication requests, which have been abused by voice phishing groups to impersonate Apple.
Apple said its representatives will never ask users to provide their password, device passcode, or two-factor authentication code or to enter it into a web page, even if it looks like an official Apple website. If a user receives a message or call that claims to be from Apple, here is what the user should expect.
According to Stotle, the target lists used by their phishing callers originate mostly from a few crypto-related data breaches, including the 2022 and 2024 breaches involving user account data stolen from cryptocurrency hardware wallet vendor Trezor.
Perm’s group and other crypto phishing gangs rely on a mix of homemade code and third-party data broker services to refine their target lists. Known as “autodoxers,” these tools help phishing gangs quickly automate the acquisition and/or verification of personal data on a target prior to each call attempt.
One “autodoxer” service advertised on Telegram that promotes a range of voice phishing tools and services.
Stotle said their autodoxer used a Telegram bot that leverages hacked accounts at consumer data brokers to gather a wealth of information about their targets, including their full Social Security number, date of birth, current and previous addresses, employer, and the names of family members.
The autodoxers are used to verify that each email address on a target list has an active account at Coinbase or another cryptocurrency exchange, ensuring that the attackers don’t waste time calling people who have no cryptocurrency to steal.
Some of these autodoxer tools also will check the value of the target’s home address at property search services online, and then sort the target lists so that the wealthiest are at the top.
Stotle’s messages on Discord and Telegram show that a phishing group renting Perm’s panel voice-phished tens of thousands of dollars worth of cryptocurrency from the billionaire Mark Cuban.
“I was an idiot,” Cuban told KrebsOnsecurity when asked about the June 2024 attack, which he first disclosed in a short-lived post on Twitter/X. “We were shooting Shark Tank and I was rushing between pitches.”
Image: Shutterstock, ssi77.
Cuban said he first received a notice from Google that someone had tried to log in to his account. Then he got a call from what appeared to be a Google phone number. Cuban said he ignored several of these emails and calls until he decided they probably wouldn’t stop unless he answered.
“So I answered, and wasn’t paying enough attention,” he said. “They asked for the circled number that comes up on the screen. Like a moron, I gave it to them, and they were in.”
Unfortunately for Cuban, somewhere in his inbox were the secret “seed phrases” protecting two of his cryptocurrency accounts, and armed with those credentials the crooks were able to drain his funds. All told, the thieves managed to steal roughly $43,000 worth of cryptocurrencies from Cuban’s wallets — a relatively small heist for this crew.
“They must have done some keyword searches,” once inside his Gmail account, Cuban said. “I had sent myself an email I had forgotten about that had my seed words for 2 accounts that weren’t very active any longer. I had moved almost everything but some smaller balances to Coinbase.”
Cybercriminals involved in voice phishing communities on Telegram are universally obsessed with their crypto holdings, mainly because in this community one’s demonstrable wealth is primarily what confers social status. It is not uncommon to see members sizing one another up using a verbal shorthand of “figs,” as in figures of crypto wealth.
For example, a low-level caller with no experience will sometimes be mockingly referred to as a 3fig or 3f, as in a person with less than $1,000 to their name. Salaries for callers are often also referenced this way, e.g. “Weekly salary: 5f.”
This meme shared by Stotle uses humor to depict an all-too-common pathway for voice phishing callers, who are often minors recruited from gaming networks like Minecraft and Roblox. The image that Lookout used in its blog post for Crypto Chameleon can be seen in the lower right hooded figure.
Voice phishing groups frequently require new members to provide “proof of funds” — screenshots of their crypto holdings, ostensibly to demonstrate they are not penniless — before they’re allowed to join.
This proof of funds (POF) demand is typical among thieves selling high-dollar items, because it tends to cut down on the time-wasting inquiries from criminals who can’t afford what’s for sale anyway. But it has become so common in cybercrime communities that there are now several services designed to create fake POF images and videos, allowing customers to brag about large crypto holdings without actually possessing said wealth.
Several of the phishing panel videos shared by Stotle feature audio that suggests co-conspirators were practicing responses to certain call scenarios, while other members of the phishing group critiqued them or tried disrupt their social engineering by being verbally abusive.
These groups will organize and operate for a few weeks, but tend to disintegrate when one member of the conspiracy decides to steal some or all of the loot, referred to in these communities as “snaking” others out of their agreed-upon sums. Almost invariably, the phishing groups will splinter apart over the drama caused by one of these snaking events, and individual members eventually will then re-form a new phishing group.
Allison Nixon is the chief research officer for Unit 221B, a cybersecurity firm in New York that has worked on a number of investigations involving these voice phishing groups. Nixon said the constant snaking within the voice phishing circles points to a psychological self-selection phenomenon that is in desperate need of academic study.
“In short, a person whose moral compass lets them rob old people will also be a bad business partner,” Nixon said. “This is another fundamental flaw in this ecosystem and why most groups end in betrayal. This structural problem is great for journalists and the police too. Lots of snitching.”
Asked about the size of Perm’s phishing enterprise, Stotle said there were dozens of distinct phishing groups paying to use Perm’s panel. He said each group was assigned their own subdomain on Perm’s main “command and control server,” which naturally uses the domain name commandandcontrolserver[.]com.
A review of that domain’s history via DomainTools.com shows there are at least 57 separate subdomains scattered across commandandcontrolserver[.]com and two other related control domains — thebackendserver[.]com and lookoutsucks[.]com. That latter domain was created and deployed shortly after Lookout published its blog post on Crypto Chameleon.
The dozens of phishing domains that phone home to these control servers are all kept offline when they are not actively being used in phishing attacks. A social engineering training guide shared by Stotle explains this practice minimizes the chances that a phishing domain will get “redpaged,” a reference to the default red warning pages served by Google Chrome or Firefox whenever someone tries to visit a site that’s been flagged for phishing or distributing malware.
What’s more, while the phishing sites are live their operators typically place a CAPTCHA challenge in front of the main page to prevent security services from scanning and flagging the sites as malicious.
It may seem odd that so many cybercriminal groups operate so openly on instant collaboration networks like Telegram and Discord. After all, this blog is replete with stories about cybercriminals getting caught thanks to personal details they inadvertently leaked or disclosed themselves.
Nixon said the relative openness of these cybercrime communities makes them inherently risky, but it also allows for the rapid formation and recruitment of new potential co-conspirators. Moreover, today’s English-speaking cybercriminals tend to be more afraid of getting home invaded or mugged by fellow cyber thieves than they are of being arrested by authorities.
“The biggest structural threat to the online criminal ecosystem is not the police or researchers, it is fellow criminals,” Nixon said. “To protect them from themselves, every criminal forum and marketplace has a reputation system, even though they know it’s a major liability when the police come. That is why I am not worried as we see criminals migrate to various ‘encrypted’ platforms that promise to ignore the police. To protect themselves better against the law, they have to ditch their protections against fellow criminals and that’s not going to happen.”
Brushing scams are a type of online fraud where sellers send unsolicited packages to individuals, even though they never made an order. These deceptive tactics are often used on popular e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and AliExpress. The goal of scammers is to artificially inflate product rankings and create fake reviews, ultimately boosting their sales and visibility. Read on to understand how brushing scams work and what steps you can take to stay safe.
A brushing scam is a fraudulent practice in which sellers send packages to people without their knowledge or consent. These items are typically cheap and low-quality, such as inexpensive jewelry or random gadgets, and are sent to fake addresses or addresses obtained illegally. Once the item is delivered, the fraudster writes a fake review praising the product, which helps the seller’s rating rise.
The term “brushing” originates from Chinese e-commerce, where the act of “brushing up” sales numbers involves creating fake orders and sending goods to random individuals. This practice boosts a product’s perceived popularity, tricking other buyers into thinking the product is highly rated, thus increasing its sales.
Here’s how a brushing scam typically unfolds:
These scammers often send products like costume jewelry, seeds, or inexpensive gadgets to inflate their reviews and rankings. If you find an unsolicited package at your door, there’s a high chance it’s part of a brushing scam.
Personal Data Exposure:
Receiving unsolicited parcels may indicate that your personal information has been compromised. Scammers typically access names and addresses through data breaches or purchase this information from illegal sources. In some cases, they may possess additional sensitive details, opening the door to identity theft.
Account Suspension:
If a fraudster uses your name to write fake reviews, your e-commerce account could be flagged or suspended by the platform while the issue is investigated.
Misleading Consumers:
Fake reviews can mislead you into purchasing low-quality products, especially when inflated ratings and positive comments are posted en masse.
Safety Hazards:
Some items involved in brushing scams, such as cosmetics, could be harmful. Other items, like flower seeds, may pose biosecurity risks or introduce invasive species to your local ecosystem.
If you’ve received an unexpected package and suspect it’s part of a brushing scam, report it to the online marketplace involved. Platforms typically provide a form for users to submit reports on fraudulent packages. Here’s how to handle it:
You can also report the incident to your local consumer protection agency or, in the case of U.S. residents, to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
If the scam occurs on Amazon, follow these steps:
It’s important not to consume or use the product, especially if its quality is questionable or if it’s an item like cosmetics or food. Update your passwords for Amazon and any linked accounts and monitor your financial statements for suspicious activity.
Here are some steps to prevent falling victim to brushing scams:
If you receive unexpected items from China or other overseas locations, it could be a sign of a brushing scam, especially if the items appear low-quality or irrelevant.
If you receive a package you didn’t order via USPS:
Brushing scams are a growing concern, but by staying vigilant and taking appropriate steps, you can protect your personal information and avoid falling prey to these deceptive tactics. Always report suspicious packages and reviews, and be cautious when interacting with unfamiliar sellers.
The post How to Protect Yourself from a Brushing Scam appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Cybercriminals are selling hundreds of thousands of credential sets stolen with the help of a cracked version of Acunetix, a powerful commercial web app vulnerability scanner, new research finds. The cracked software is being resold as a cloud-based attack tool by at least two different services, one of which KrebsOnSecurity traced to an information technology firm based in Turkey.
Araneida Scanner.
Cyber threat analysts at Silent Push said they recently received reports from a partner organization that identified an aggressive scanning effort against their website using an Internet address previously associated with a campaign by FIN7, a notorious Russia-based hacking group.
But on closer inspection they discovered the address contained an HTML title of “Araneida Customer Panel,” and found they could search on that text string to find dozens of unique addresses hosting the same service.
It soon became apparent that Araneida was being resold as a cloud-based service using a cracked version of Acunetix, allowing paying customers to conduct offensive reconnaissance on potential target websites, scrape user data, and find vulnerabilities for exploitation.
Silent Push also learned Araneida bundles its service with a robust proxy offering, so that customer scans appear to come from Internet addresses that are randomly selected from a large pool of available traffic relays.
The makers of Acunetix, Texas-based application security vendor Invicti Security, confirmed Silent Push’s findings, saying someone had figured out how to crack the free trial version of the software so that it runs without a valid license key.
“We have been playing cat and mouse for a while with these guys,” said Matt Sciberras, chief information security officer at Invicti.
Silent Push said Araneida is being advertised by an eponymous user on multiple cybercrime forums. The service’s Telegram channel boasts nearly 500 subscribers and explains how to use the tool for malicious purposes.
In a “Fun Facts” list posted to the channel in late September, Araneida said their service was used to take over more than 30,000 websites in just six months, and that one customer used it to buy a Porsche with the payment card data (“dumps”) they sold.
Araneida Scanner’s Telegram channel bragging about how customers are using the service for cybercrime.
“They are constantly bragging with their community about the crimes that are being committed, how it’s making criminals money,” said Zach Edwards, a senior threat researcher at Silent Push. “They are also selling bulk data and dumps which appear to have been acquired with this tool or due to vulnerabilities found with the tool.”
Silent Push also found a cracked version of Acunetix was powering at least 20 instances of a similar cloud-based vulnerability testing service catering to Mandarin speakers, but they were unable to find any apparently related sales threads about them on the dark web.
Rumors of a cracked version of Acunetix being used by attackers surfaced in June 2023 on Twitter/X, when researchers first posited a connection between observed scanning activity and Araneida.
According to an August 2023 report (PDF) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Acunetix (presumably a cracked version) is among several tools used by APT 41, a prolific Chinese state-sponsored hacking group.
Silent Push notes that the website where Araneida is being sold — araneida[.]co — first came online in February 2023. But a review of this Araneida nickname on the cybercrime forums shows they have been active in the criminal hacking scene since at least 2018.
A search in the threat intelligence platform Intel 471 shows a user by the name Araneida promoted the scanner on two cybercrime forums since 2022, including Breached and Nulled. In 2022, Araneida told fellow Breached members they could be reached on Discord at the username “Ornie#9811.”
According to Intel 471, this same Discord account was advertised in 2019 by a person on the cybercrime forum Cracked who used the monikers “ORN” and “ori0n.” The user “ori0n” mentioned in several posts that they could be reached on Telegram at the username “@sirorny.”
Orn advertising Araneida Scanner in Feb. 2023 on the forum Cracked. Image: Ke-la.com.
The Sirorny Telegram identity also was referenced as a point of contact for a current user on the cybercrime forum Nulled who is selling website development services, and who references araneida[.]co as one of their projects. That user, “Exorn,” has posts dating back to August 2018.
In early 2020, Exorn promoted a website called “orndorks[.]com,” which they described as a service for automating the scanning for web-based vulnerabilities. A passive DNS lookup on this domain at DomainTools.com shows that its email records pointed to the address ori0nbusiness@protonmail.com.
Constella Intelligence, a company that tracks information exposed in data breaches, finds this email address was used to register an account at Breachforums in July 2024 under the nickname “Ornie.” Constella also finds the same email registered at the website netguard[.]codes in 2021 using the password “ceza2003” [full disclosure: Constella is currently an advertiser on KrebsOnSecurity].
A search on the password ceza2003 in Constella finds roughly a dozen email addresses that used it in an exposed data breach, most of them featuring some variation on the name “altugsara,” including altugsara321@gmail.com. Constella further finds altugsara321@gmail.com was used to create an account at the cybercrime community RaidForums under the username “ori0n,” from an Internet address in Istanbul.
According to DomainTools, altugsara321@gmail.com was used in 2020 to register the domain name altugsara[.]com. Archive.org’s history for that domain shows that in 2021 it featured a website for a then 18-year-old Altuğ Şara from Ankara, Turkey.
Archive.org’s recollection of what altugsara dot com looked like in 2021.
LinkedIn finds this same altugsara[.]com domain listed in the “contact info” section of a profile for an Altug Sara from Ankara, who says he has worked the past two years as a senior software developer for a Turkish IT firm called Bilitro Yazilim.
Neither Altug Sara nor Bilitro Yazilim responded to requests for comment.
Invicti’s website states that it has offices in Ankara, but the company’s CEO said none of their employees recognized either name.
“We do have a small team in Ankara, but as far as I know we have no connection to the individual other than the fact that they are also in Ankara,” Invicti CEO Neil Roseman told KrebsOnSecurity.
Researchers at Silent Push say despite Araneida using a seemingly endless supply of proxies to mask the true location of its users, it is a fairly “noisy” scanner that will kick off a large volume of requests to various API endpoints, and make requests to random URLs associated with different content management systems.
What’s more, the cracked version of Acunetix being resold to cybercriminals invokes legacy Acunetix SSL certificates on active control panels, which Silent Push says provides a solid pivot for finding some of this infrastructure, particularly from the Chinese threat actors.
Further reading: Silent Push’s research on Araneida Scanner.
Microsoft today released updates to plug at least 70 security holes in Windows and Windows software, including one vulnerability that is already being exploited in active attacks.
The zero-day seeing exploitation involves CVE-2024-49138, a security weakness in the Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) driver — used by applications to write transaction logs — that could let an authenticated attacker gain “system” level privileges on a vulnerable Windows device.
The security firm Rapid7 notes there have been a series of zero-day elevation of privilege flaws in CLFS over the past few years.
“Ransomware authors who have abused previous CLFS vulnerabilities will be only too pleased to get their hands on a fresh one,” wrote Adam Barnett, lead software engineer at Rapid7. “Expect more CLFS zero-day vulnerabilities to emerge in the future, at least until Microsoft performs a full replacement of the aging CLFS codebase instead of offering spot fixes for specific flaws.”
Elevation of privilege vulnerabilities accounted for 29% of the 1,009 security bugs Microsoft has patched so far in 2024, according to a year-end tally by Tenable; nearly 40 percent of those bugs were weaknesses that could let attackers run malicious code on the vulnerable device.
Rob Reeves, principal security engineer at Immersive Labs, called special attention to CVE-2024-49112, a remote code execution flaw in the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) service on every version of Windows since Windows 7. CVE-2024-49112 has been assigned a CVSS (badness) score of 9.8 out of 10.
“LDAP is most commonly seen on servers that are Domain Controllers inside a Windows network and LDAP must be exposed to other servers and clients within an enterprise environment for the domain to function,” Reeves said. “Microsoft hasn’t released specific information about the vulnerability at present, but has indicated that the attack complexity is low and authentication is not required.”
Tyler Reguly at the security firm Fortra had a slightly different 2024 patch tally for Microsoft, at 1,088 vulnerabilities, which he said was surprisingly similar to the 1,063 vulnerabilities resolved in 2023 and the 1,119 vulnerabilities resolved in 2022.
“If nothing else, we can say that Microsoft is consistent,” Reguly said. “While it would be nice to see the number of vulnerabilities each year decreasing, at least consistency lets us know what to expect.”
If you’re a Windows end user and your system is not set up to automatically install updates, please take a minute this week to run Windows Update, preferably after backing up your system and/or important data.
System admins should keep an eye on AskWoody.com, which usually has the details if any of the Patch Tuesday fixes are causing problems. In the meantime, if you run into any problems applying this month’s fixes, please drop a note about in the comments below.
Winter travel is filled with excitement—whether you’re heading to a snow-covered ski resort, visiting family for the holidays, or enjoying a cozy retreat in a picturesque town. According to Tripadvisor’s Winter Travel Index, 57% of Americans are gearing up for winter travel this year, with a staggering 96% planning to travel as much or more than they did last winter. Yet, with this seasonal joy comes a hidden danger: public Wi-Fi. Airports, hotels, coffee shops, and even ski lodges offer free Wi-Fi, making it easy to stay connected while on the go. But while these networks are convenient, they can also be risky.
Common threats include Man-in-the-Middle attacks, where hackers intercept data exchanged between your device and the Wi-Fi network, and rogue hotspots, where cybercriminals set up fake Wi-Fi networks with names that mimic legitimate ones, tricking users into connecting.
Despite these risks, many travelers still connect to public Wi-Fi without taking the necessary precautions. But with a few simple steps, you can significantly reduce your exposure while traveling this winter.
The most effective way to protect your data on public Wi-Fi is by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN encrypts your internet connection, making it virtually impossible for hackers to intercept your data. It creates a secure tunnel between your device and the internet, ensuring that your online activity remains private.
By encrypting your data, a VPN ensures that any information transmitted over the network is unreadable to anyone attempting to intercept it, such as hackers or cybercriminals. It also masks your IP address, adding a layer of anonymity that makes it difficult for snoopers to trace your online movements or identify your location.
Even with a VPN, it’s wise to avoid performing sensitive transactions on public Wi-Fi networks. For activities like online banking, shopping with credit cards, or accessing sensitive work documents, it’s best to reserve those tasks for secure, private networks. Taking a few extra precautions can further reduce your risk of data theft.
Not all Wi-Fi networks are created equal. Some are outright traps set by hackers to lure unsuspecting users. Always verify the official network name with a staff member before connecting, especially in places like airports, hotels, or cafes. Knowing how to identify suspicious networks can save you from connecting to a rogue hotspot.
Protecting your data on public Wi-Fi isn’t just about the network—it’s also about securing your devices. Cybercriminals can exploit vulnerabilities in your smartphone, tablet, or laptop to gain access to your personal information.
Public Wi-Fi can be a lifesaver when you’re traveling, but it doesn’t have to be a risk. By following these simple tips—using a VPN, avoiding sensitive transactions, and securing your devices—you can enjoy your winter adventures without compromising your personal data. So, whether you’re sipping hot cocoa in a ski lodge or waiting for a flight home, stay connected, stay secure, and make the most of your winter travels.
The post How to Protect Your Data While On-the-Go appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Winter Travel Wi-Fi Safety: How to Protect Your Data While On-the-Go
Winter travel is filled with excitement—whether you’re heading to a snow-covered ski resort, visiting family for the holidays, or enjoying a cozy retreat in a picturesque town. According to Tripadvisor’s Winter Travel Index, 57% of Americans are gearing up for winter travel this year, with a staggering 96% planning to travel as much or more than they did last winter. Yet, with this seasonal joy comes a hidden danger: public Wi-Fi. Airports, hotels, coffee shops, and even ski lodges offer free Wi-Fi, making it easy to stay connected while on the go. But while these networks are convenient, they can also be risky.
Public Wi-Fi networks are notorious for their lack of security. Unlike your home network, which is likely password-protected and encrypted, many public networks are open and vulnerable to cyberattacks. Hackers can intercept your data, monitor your online activity, and even steal sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, and personal identification.
Common threats include Man-in-the-Middle attacks, where hackers intercept data exchanged between your device and the Wi-Fi network, and rogue hotspots, where cybercriminals set up fake Wi-Fi networks with names that mimic legitimate ones, tricking users into connecting.
Despite these risks, many travelers still connect to public Wi-Fi without taking the necessary precautions. But with a few simple steps, you can significantly reduce your exposure while traveling this winter.
1. Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN): Your Best Defense
The most effective way to protect your data on public Wi-Fi is by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN encrypts your internet connection, making it virtually impossible for hackers to intercept your data. It creates a secure tunnel between your device and the internet, ensuring that your online activity remains private.
By encrypting your data, a VPN ensures that any information transmitted over the network is unreadable to anyone attempting to intercept it, such as hackers or cybercriminals. It also masks your IP address, adding a layer of anonymity that makes it difficult for snoopers to trace your online movements or identify your location.
2. Avoid Sensitive Transactions on Public Wi-Fi
Even with a VPN, it’s wise to avoid performing sensitive transactions on public Wi-Fi networks. For activities like online banking, shopping with credit cards, or accessing sensitive work documents, it’s best to reserve those tasks for secure, private networks. Taking a few extra precautions can further reduce your risk of data theft.
Safer Alternatives:
3. Spot Suspicious Wi-Fi Networks
Not all Wi-Fi networks are created equal. Some are outright traps set by hackers to lure unsuspecting users. Always verify the official network name with a staff member before connecting, especially in places like airports, hotels, or cafes. Knowing how to identify suspicious networks can save you from connecting to a rogue hotspot.
Red Flags to Watch For:
4. Keep Your Devices Secure
Protecting your data on public Wi-Fi isn’t just about the network—it’s also about securing your devices. Cybercriminals can exploit vulnerabilities in your smartphone, tablet, or laptop to gain access to your personal information.
Device Security Tips:
Stay Safe and Enjoy Your Winter Travels
Public Wi-Fi can be a lifesaver when you’re traveling, but it doesn’t have to be a risk. By following these simple tips—using a VPN, avoiding sensitive transactions, and securing your devices—you can enjoy your winter adventures without compromising your personal data. So, whether you’re sipping hot cocoa in a ski lodge or waiting for a flight home, stay connected, stay secure, and make the most of your winter travels.
The post Winter Travel Wi-Fi Safety: How to Protect Your Data While On-the-Go appeared first on McAfee Blog.
In January 2022, KrebsOnSecurity identified a Russian man named Mikhail Matveev as “Wazawaka,” a cybercriminal who was deeply involved in the formation and operation of multiple ransomware groups. The U.S. government indicted Matveev as a top ransomware purveyor a year later, offering $10 million for information leading to his arrest. Last week, the Russian government reportedly arrested Matveev and charged him with creating malware used to extort companies.
An FBI wanted poster for Matveev.
Matveev, a.k.a. “Wazawaka” and “Boriselcin” worked with at least three different ransomware gangs that extorted hundreds of millions of dollars from companies, schools, hospitals and government agencies, U.S. prosecutors allege.
Russia’s interior ministry last week issued a statement saying a 32-year-old hacker had been charged with violating domestic laws against the creation and use of malicious software. The announcement didn’t name the accused, but the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti cited anonymous sources saying the man detained is Matveev.
Matveev did not respond to requests for comment. Daryna Antoniuk at TheRecord reports that a security researcher said on Sunday they had contacted Wazawaka, who confirmed being charged and said he’d paid two fines, had his cryptocurrency confiscated, and is currently out on bail pending trial.
Matveev’s hacker identities were remarkably open and talkative on numerous cybercrime forums. Shortly after being identified as Wazawaka by KrebsOnSecurity in 2022, Matveev published multiple selfie videos on Twitter/X where he acknowledged using the Wazawaka moniker and mentioned several security researchers by name (including this author). More recently, Matveev’s X profile (@ransomboris) posted a picture of a t-shirt that features the U.S. government’s “Wanted” poster for him.
An image tweeted by Matveev showing the Justice Department’s wanted poster for him on a t-shirt. image: x.com/vxunderground
The golden rule of cybercrime in Russia has always been that as long as you never hack, extort or steal from Russian citizens or companies, you have little to fear of arrest. Wazawaka claimed he zealously adhered to this rule as a personal and professional mantra.
“Don’t shit where you live, travel local, and don’t go abroad,” Wazawaka wrote in January 2021 on the Russian-language cybercrime forum Exploit. “Mother Russia will help you. Love your country, and you will always get away with everything.”
Still, Wazawaka may not have always stuck to that rule. At several points throughout his career, Wazawaka claimed he made good money stealing accounts from drug dealers on darknet narcotics bazaars.
Cyber intelligence firm Intel 471 said Matveev’s arrest raises more questions than answers, and that Russia’s motivation here likely goes beyond what’s happening on the surface.
“It’s possible this is a shakedown by Kaliningrad authorities of a local internet thug who has tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency,” Intel 471 wrote in an analysis published Dec. 2. “The country’s ingrained, institutional corruption dictates that if dues aren’t paid, trouble will come knocking. But it’s usually a problem money can fix.
Intel 471 says while Russia’s court system is opaque, Matveev will likely be open about the proceedings, particularly if he pays a toll and is granted passage to continue his destructive actions.
“Unfortunately, none of this would mark meaningful progress against ransomware,” they concluded.
Although Russia traditionally hasn’t put a lot of effort into going after cybercriminals within its borders, it has brought a series of charges against alleged ransomware actors this year. In January, four men tied to the REvil ransomware group were sentenced to lengthy prison terms. The men were among 14 suspected REvil members rounded up by Russia in the weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Earlier this year, Russian authorities arrested at least two men for allegedly operating the short-lived Sugarlocker ransomware program in 2021. Aleksandr Ermakov and Mikhail Shefel (now legally Mikhail Lenin) ran a security consulting business called Shtazi-IT. Shortly before his arrest, Ermakov became the first ever cybercriminal sanctioned by Australia, which alleged he stole and leaked data on nearly 10 million customers of the Australian health giant Medibank.
In December 2023, KrebsOnSecurity identified Lenin as “Rescator,” the nickname used by the cybercriminal responsible for selling more than 100 million payment cards stolen from customers of Target and Home Depot in 2013 and 2014. Last month, Shefel admitted in an interview with KrebsOnSecurity that he was Rescator, and claimed his arrest in the Sugarlocker case was payback for reporting the son of his former boss to the police.
Ermakov was sentenced to two years probation. But on the same day my interview with Lenin was published here, a Moscow court declared him insane, and ordered him to undergo compulsory medical treatment, The Record’s Antoniuk notes.
Phishing attacks increased nearly 40 percent in the year ending August 2024, with much of that growth concentrated at a small number of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) — such as .shop, .top, .xyz — that attract scammers with rock-bottom prices and no meaningful registration requirements, new research finds. Meanwhile, the nonprofit entity that oversees the domain name industry is moving forward with plans to introduce a slew of new gTLDs.
Image: Shutterstock.
A study on phishing data released by Interisle Consulting finds that new gTLDs introduced in the last few years command just 11 percent of the market for new domains, but accounted for roughly 37 percent of cybercrime domains reported between September 2023 and August 2024.
Interisle was sponsored by several anti-spam organizations, including the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE), and the Messaging, Malware, and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG).
The study finds that while .com and .net domains made up approximately half of all domains registered in the past year (more than all of the other TLDs combined) they accounted for just over 40 percent of all cybercrime domains. Interisle says an almost equal share — 37 percent — of cybercrime domains were registered through new gTLDs.
Spammers and scammers gravitate toward domains in the new gTLDs because these registrars tend to offer cheap or free registration with little to no account or identity verification requirements. For example, among the gTLDs with the highest cybercrime domain scores in this year’s study, nine offered registration fees for less than $1, and nearly two dozen offered fees of less than $2.00. By comparison, the cheapest price identified for a .com domain was $5.91.
Currently, there are around 2,500 registrars authorized to sell domains by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the California nonprofit that oversees the domain industry.
The top 5 new gTLDs, ranked by cybercrime domains reported. Image: Interisle Cybercrime Supply Chain 2014.
Incredibly, despite years of these reports showing phishers heavily abusing new gTLDs, ICANN is shuffling forward on a plan to introduce even more of them. ICANN’s proposed next round envisions accepting applications for new gTLDs in 2026.
John Levine is author of the book “The Internet for Dummies” and president of CAUCE. Levine said adding more TLDs without a much stricter registration policy will likely further expand an already plentiful greenfield for cybercriminals.
“The problem is that ICANN can’t make up their mind whether they are the neutral nonprofit regulator or just the domain speculator trade association,” Levine told KrebsOnSecurity. “But they act a lot more like the latter.”
Levine said the vast majority of new gTLDs have a few thousand domains — a far cry from the number of registrations they would need just to cover the up-front costs of operating a new gTLD (~$180,000-$300,000). New gTLD registrars can quickly attract customers by selling domains cheaply to customers who buy domains in bulk, but that tends to be a losing strategy.
“Selling to criminals and spammers turns out to be lousy business,” Levine said. “You can charge whatever you want on the first year, but you have to charge list price on domain renewals. And criminals and spammers never renew. So if it sounds like the economics makes no sense it’s because the economics makes no sense.”
In virtually all previous spam reports, Interisle found the top brands referenced in phishing attacks were the largest technology companies, including Apple, Facebook, Google and PayPal. But this past year, Interisle found the U.S. Postal Service was by far the most-phished entity, with more than four times the number of phishing domains as the second most-frequent target (Apple).
At least some of that increase is likely from a prolific cybercriminal using the nickname Chenlun, who has been selling phishing kits targeting domestic postal services in the United States and at least a dozen other countries.
Interisle says an increasing number of phishers are eschewing domain registrations altogether, and instead taking advantage of subdomain providers like blogspot.com, pages.dev, and weebly.com. The report notes that cyberattacks hosted at subdomain provider services can be tough to mitigate, because only the subdomain provider can disable malicious accounts or take down malicious web pages.
“Any action upstream, such as blocking the second-level domain, would have an impact across the provider’s whole customer base,” the report observes.
Interisle tracked more than 1.18 million instances of subdomains used for phishing in the past year (a 114 percent increase), and found more than half of those were subdomains at blogspot.com and other services operated by Google.
“Many of these services allow the creation of large numbers of accounts at one time, which is highly exploited by criminals,” the report concludes. “Subdomain providers should limit the number of subdomains (user accounts) a customer can create at one time and suspend automated, high-volume automated account sign-ups – especially using free services.”
Dec. 4, 10:21 a.m. ET: Corrected link to report.
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Two men have been arrested for allegedly stealing data from and extorting dozens of companies that used the cloud data storage company Snowflake, but a third suspect — a prolific hacker known as Kiberphant0m — remains at large and continues to publicly extort victims. However, this person’s identity may not remain a secret for long: A careful review of Kiberphant0m’s daily chats across multiple cybercrime personas suggests they are a U.S. Army soldier who is or was recently stationed in South Korea.
Kiberphant0m’s identities on cybercrime forums and on Telegram and Discord chat channels have been selling data stolen from customers of the cloud data storage company Snowflake. At the end of 2023, malicious hackers discovered that many companies had uploaded huge volumes of sensitive customer data to Snowflake accounts that were protected with nothing more than a username and password (no multi-factor authentication required).
After scouring darknet markets for stolen Snowflake account credentials, the hackers began raiding the data storage repositories for some of the world’s largest corporations. Among those was AT&T, which disclosed in July that cybercriminals had stolen personal information, phone and text message records for roughly 110 million people. Wired.com reported in July that AT&T paid a hacker $370,000 to delete stolen phone records.
On October 30, Canadian authorities arrested Alexander Moucka, a.k.a. Connor Riley Moucka of Kitchener, Ontario, on a provisional arrest warrant from the United States, which has since indicted him on 20 criminal counts connected to the Snowflake breaches. Another suspect in the Snowflake hacks, John Erin Binns, is an American who is currently incarcerated in Turkey.
A surveillance photo of Connor Riley Moucka, a.k.a. “Judische” and “Waifu,” dated Oct 21, 2024, 9 days before Moucka’s arrest. This image was included in an affidavit filed by an investigator with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Investigators say Moucka, who went by the handles Judische and Waifu, had tasked Kiberphant0m with selling data stolen from Snowflake customers who refused to pay a ransom to have their information deleted. Immediately after news broke of Moucka’s arrest, Kiberphant0m was clearly furious, and posted on the hacker community BreachForums what they claimed were the AT&T call logs for President-elect Donald J. Trump and for Vice President Kamala Harris.
“In the event you do not reach out to us @ATNT all presidential government call logs will be leaked,” Kiberphant0m threatened, signing their post with multiple “#FREEWAIFU” tags. “You don’t think we don’t have plans in the event of an arrest? Think again.”
On the same day, Kiberphant0m posted what they claimed was the “data schema” from the U.S. National Security Agency.
“This was obtained from the ATNT Snowflake hack which is why ATNT paid an extortion,” Kiberphant0m wrote in a thread on BreachForums. “Why would ATNT pay Waifu for the data when they wouldn’t even pay an extortion for over 20M+ SSNs?”
Kiberphant0m posting what he claimed was a “data schema” stolen from the NSA via AT&T.
Also on Nov. 5, Kiberphant0m offered call logs stolen from Verizon’s push-to-talk (PTT) customers — mainly U.S. government agencies and emergency first responders. On Nov. 9, Kiberphant0m posted a sales thread on BreachForums offering a “SIM-swapping” service targeting Verizon PTT customers. In a SIM-swap, fraudsters use credentials that are phished or stolen from mobile phone company employees to divert a target’s phone calls and text messages to a device they control.
Kiberphant0m joined BreachForums in January 2024, but their public utterances on Discord and Telegram channels date back to at least early 2022. On their first post to BreachForums, Kiberphant0m said they could be reached at the Telegram handle @cyb3rph4nt0m.
A review of @cyb3rph4nt0m shows this user has posted more than 4,200 messages since January 2024. Many of these messages were attempts to recruit people who could be hired to deploy a piece of malware that enslaved host machines in an Internet of Things (IoT) botnet.
On BreachForums, Kiberphant0m has sold the source code to “Shi-Bot,” a custom Linux DDoS botnet based on the Mirai malware. Kiberphant0m had few sales threads on BreachForums prior to the Snowflake attacks becoming public in May, and many of those involved databases stolen from companies in South Korea.
On June 5, 2024, a Telegram user by the name “Buttholio” joined the fraud-focused Telegram channel “Comgirl” and claimed to be Kiberphant0m. Buttholio made the claim after being taunted as a nobody by another denizen of Comgirl, referring to their @cyb3rph4nt0m account on Telegram and the Kiberphant0m user on cybercrime forums.
“Type ‘kiberphant0m’ on google with the quotes,” Buttholio told another user. “I’ll wait. Go ahead. Over 50 articles. 15+ telecoms breached. I got the IMSI number to every single person that’s ever registered in Verizon, Tmobile, ATNT and Verifone.”
On Sept. 17, 2023, Buttholio posted in a Discord chat room dedicated to players of the video game Escape from Tarkov. “Come to Korea, servers there is pretty much no extract camper or cheater,” Buttholio advised.
In another message that same day in the gaming Discord, Buttholio told others they bought the game in the United States, but that they were playing it in Asia.
“USA is where the game was purchased from, server location is actual in game servers u play on. I am a u.s. soldier so i bought it in the states but got on rotation so i have to use asian servers,” they shared.
The account @Kiberphant0m was assigned the Telegram ID number 6953392511. A review of this ID at the cyber intelligence platform Flashpoint shows that on January 4, 2024 Kibertphant0m posted to the Telegram channel “Dstat,” which is populated by cybercriminals involved in launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and selling DDoS-for-hire services [Full disclosure: Flashpoint is currently an advertiser on this website].
Immediately after Kiberphant0m logged on to the Dstat channel, another user wrote “hi buttholio,” to which Kiberphant0m replied with an affirmative greeting “wsg,” or “what’s good.” On Nov. 1, Dstat’s website dstat[.]cc was seized as part of “Operation PowerOFF,” an international law enforcement action against DDoS services.
Flashpoint’s data shows that @kiberphant0m told a fellow member of Dstat on April 10, 2024 that their alternate Telegram username was “@reverseshell,” and did the same two weeks later in the Telegram chat The Jacuzzi. The Telegram ID for this account is 5408575119.
Way back on Nov. 15, 2022, @reverseshell told a fellow member of a Telegram channel called Cecilio Chat that they were a soldier in the U.S. Army. This user also shared the following image of someone pictured waist-down in military fatigues, with a camouflaged backpack at their feet:
Kiberphant0m’s apparent alias ReverseShell posted this image on a Telegram channel Cecilio Chat, on Nov. 15, 2022. Image: Flashpoint.
In September 2022, Reverseshell was embroiled in an argument with another member who had threatened to launch a DDoS attack against Reverseshell’s Internet address. After the promised attack materialized, Reverseshell responded, “Yall just hit military base contracted wifi.”
In a chat from October 2022, Reverseshell was bragging about the speed of the servers they were using, and in reply to another member’s question said that they were accessing the Internet via South Korea Telecom.
Telegram chat logs archived by Flashpoint show that on Aug. 23, 2022, Reverseshell bragged they’d been using automated tools to find valid logins for Internet servers that they resold to others.
“I’ve hit US gov servers with default creds,” Reverseshell wrote, referring to systems with easy-to-guess usernames and/or passwords. “Telecom control servers, machinery shops, Russian ISP servers, etc. I sold a few big companies for like $2-3k a piece. You can sell the access when you get a big SSH into corporation.”
On July 29, 2023, Reverseshell posted a screenshot of a login page for a major U.S. defense contractor, claiming they had an aerospace company’s credentials to sell.
Flashpoint finds the Telegram ID 5408575119 has used several aliases since 2022, including Reverseshell and Proman557.
A search on the username Proman557 at the cyber intelligence platform Intel 471 shows that a hacker by the name “Proman554” registered on Hackforums in September 2022, and in messages to other users Proman554 said they can be reached at the Telegram account Buttholio.
Intel 471 also finds the Proman557 moniker is one of many used by a person on the Russian-language hacking forum Exploit in 2022 who sold a variety of Linux-based botnet malware.
Proman557 was eventually banned — allegedly for scamming a fellow member out of $350 — and the Exploit moderator warned forum users that Proman557 had previously registered under several other nicknames, including an account called “Vars_Secc.”
Vars_Secc’s thousands of comments on Telegram over two years show this user divided their time between online gaming, maintaining a DDoS botnet, and promoting the sale or renting of their botnets to other users.
“I use ddos for many things not just to be a skid,” Vars_Secc pronounced. “Why do you think I haven’t sold my net?” They then proceeded to list the most useful qualities of their botnet:
-I use it to hit off servers that ban me or piss me off
-I used to ddos certain games to get my items back since the data reverts to when u joined
-I use it for server side desync RCE vulnerabilities
-I use it to sometimes ransom
-I use it when bored as a source of entertainment
Flashpoint shows that in June 2023, Vars_Secc responded to taunting from a fellow member in the Telegram channel SecHub who had threatened to reveal their personal details to the federal government for a reward.
“Man I’ve been doing this shit for 4 years,” Vars_Secc replied nonchalantly. “I highly doubt the government is going to pay millions of dollars for data on some random dude operating a pointless ddos botnet and finding a few vulnerabilities here and there.”
For several months in 2023, Vars_Secc also was an active member of the Russian-language crime forum XSS, where they sold access to a U.S. government server for $2,000. However, Vars_Secc would be banned from XSS after attempting to sell access to the Russian telecommunications giant Rostelecom. [In this, Vars_Secc violated the Number One Rule for operating on a Russia-based crime forum: Never offer to hack or sell data stolen from Russian entities or citizens].
On June 20, 2023, Vars_Secc posted a sales thread on the cybercrime forum Ramp 2.0 titled, “Selling US Gov Financial Access.”
“Server within the network, possible to pivot,” Vars_Secc’s sparse sales post read. “Has 3-5 subroutes connected to it. Price $1,250. Telegram: Vars_Secc.”
Vars_Secc also used Ramp in June 2023 to sell access to a “Vietnam government Internet Network Information Center.”
“Selling access server allocated within the network,” Vars_Secc wrote. “Has some data on it. $500.”
The Vars_Secc identity claimed on Telegram in May 2023 that they made money by submitting reports about software flaws to HackerOne, a company that helps technology firms field reports about security vulnerabilities in their products and services. Specifically, Vars_Secc said they had earned financial rewards or “bug bounties” from reddit.com, the U.S. Department of Defense, and Coinbase, among 30 others.
“I make money off bug bounties, it’s quite simple,” Vars_Secc said when asked what they do for a living. “That’s why I have over 30 bug bounty reports on HackerOne.”
A month before that, Vars_Secc said they’d found a vulnerability in reddit.com.
“I poisoned Reddit’s cache,” they explained. “I’m going to exploit it further, then report it to reddit.”
KrebsOnSecurity sought comment from HackerOne, which said it would investigate the claims. This story will be updated if they respond.
The Vars_Secc telegram handle also has claimed ownership of the BreachForums member “Boxfan,” and Intel 471 shows Boxfan’s early posts on the forum had the Vars_Secc Telegram account in their signature. In their most recent post to BreachForums in January 2024, Boxfan disclosed a security vulnerability they found in Naver, the most popular search engine in South Korea (according to statista.com). Boxfan’s comments suggest they have strong negative feelings about South Korean culture.
“Have fun exploiting this vulnerability,” Boxfan wrote on BreachForums, after pasting a long string of computer code intended to demonstrate the flaw. “Fuck you South Korea and your discriminatory views. Nobody likes ur shit kpop you evil fucks. Whoever can dump this DB [database] congrats. I don’t feel like doing it so I’ll post it to the forum.”
The many identities tied to Kiberphant0m strongly suggest they are or until recently were a U.S. Army soldier stationed in South Korea. Kiberphant0m’s alter egos never mentioned their military rank, regiment, or specialization.
However, it is likely that Kiberphant0m’s facility with computers and networking was noticed by the Army. According to the U.S. Army’s website, the bulk of its forces in South Korea reside within the Eighth Army, which has a dedicated cyber operations unit focused on defending against cyber threats.
On April 1, 2023, Vars_Secc posted to a public Telegram chat channel a screenshot of the National Security Agency’s website. The image indicated the visitor had just applied for some type of job at the NSA.
A screenshot posted by Vars_Secc on Telegram on April 1, 2023, suggesting they just applied for a job at the National Security Agency.
The NSA has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Reached via Telegram, Kiberphant0m acknowledged that KrebsOnSecurity managed to unearth their old handles.
“I see you found the IP behind it no way,” Kiberphant0m replied. “I see you managed to find my old aliases LOL.”
Kiberphant0m denied being in the U.S. Army or ever being in South Korea, and said all of that was a lengthy ruse designed to create a fictitious persona. “Epic opsec troll,” they claimed.
Asked if they were at all concerned about getting busted, Kiberphant0m called that an impossibility.
“I literally can’t get caught,” Kiberphant0m said, declining an invitation to explain why. “I don’t even live in the USA Mr. Krebs.”
Below is a mind map that hopefully helps illustrate some of the connections between and among Kiberphant0m’s apparent alter egos.
A mind map of the connections between and among the identities apparently used by Kiberphant0m. Click to enlarge.
KrebsOnSecurity would like to extend a special note of thanks to the New York City based security intelligence firm Unit 221B for their assistance in helping to piece together key elements of Kiberphant0m’s different identities.
McAfee threat researchers have identified several consumer brands and product categories most frequently used by cybercriminals to trick consumers into clicking on malicious links in the first weeks of this holiday shopping season. As holiday excitement peaks and shoppers hunt for the perfect gifts and amazing deals, scammers are taking advantage of the buzz. The National Retail Federation projects holiday spending will reach between $979.5 and $989 billion this year, and cybercriminals are capitalizing by creating scams that mimic the trusted brands and categories consumers trust. From October 1 to November 12, 2024, McAfee safeguarded its customers from 624,346 malicious or suspicious URLs tied to popular consumer brand names – a clear indication that bad actors are exploiting trusted brand names to deceive holiday shoppers.
McAfee’s threat research also reveals a 33.82% spike in malicious URLs targeting consumers with these brands’ names in the run-up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This rise in fraudulent activity aligns with holiday shopping patterns during a time when consumers may be more susceptible to clicking on offers from well-known brands like Apple, Yeezy, and Louis Vuitton, especially when deals seem too good to be true – pointing to the need for consumers to stay vigilant, especially with offers that seem unusually generous or come from unverified sources.
McAfee threat researchers have identified a surge in counterfeit sites and phishing scams that use popular luxury brands and tech products to lure consumers into “deals” on fake e-commerce sites designed to appear as official brand pages. While footwear and handbags were identified as the top two product categories exploited by cybercrooks during this festive time, the list of most exploited brands extends beyond those borders:
By mimicking trusted brands like these, offering unbelievable deals, or posing as legitimate customer service channels, cybercrooks create convincing traps designed to steal personal information or money. Here are some of the most common tactics scammers are using this holiday season:
With holiday shopping in full swing, it’s essential for consumers to stay one step ahead of scammers. By understanding the tactics cybercriminals use and taking a few precautionary measures, shoppers can protect themselves from falling victim to fraud. Here are some practical tips for safe shopping this season:
McAfee’s threat research team analyzed malicious or suspicious URLs that McAfee’s web reputation technology identified as targeting customers, by using a list of key company and product brand names—based on insights from a Potter Clarkson report on frequently faked brands—to query the URLs. This methodology captures instances where users either clicked on or were directed to dangerous sites mimicking trusted brands. Additionally, the team queried anonymized user activity from October 1st through November 12th.
The image below is a screenshot of a fake / malicious / scam site: Yeezy is a popular product brand formerly from Adidas found in multiple Malicious/Suspicious URLs. Often, they present themselves as official Yeezy and/or Adidas shopping sites.
The image below is a screenshot of a fake / malicious / scam site: The Apple brand was a popular target for scammers. Many sites were either knock offs, scams, or in this case, a fake customer service page designed to lure users into a scam.
The image below is a screenshot of a fake / malicious / scam site: This particular (fake) Apple sales site used Apple within its URL and name to appear more official. Oddly, this site also sells Samsung Android phones.
The image below is a screenshot of a fake / malicious / scam site: This site, now taken down, is a scam site purporting to sell Nike shoes.
The image below is a screenshot of a fake / malicious / scam site: Louis Vuitton is a popular brand for counterfeit and scams. Particularly their handbags. Here is one site that was entirely focused on Louis Vuitton Handbags.
The image below is a screenshot of a fake / malicious / scam site: This site presents itself as the official Louis Vuitton site selling handbags and clothes.
The image below is a screenshot of a fake / malicious / scam site: This site uses too-good-to-be-true deals on branded items including this Louis Vuitton Bomber jacket.
The image below is a screenshot of a fake / malicious / scam site: Rolex is a popular watch brand for counterfeits and scams. This site acknowledges it sells counterfeits and makes no effort to indicate this on the product.
The post This Holiday Season, Watch Out for These Cyber-Grinch Tricks Used to Scam Holiday Shoppers appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Two-step verification, two-factor authentication, multi-factor authentication…whatever your social media platform calls it, it’s an excellent way to protect your accounts.
There’s a good chance you’re already using multi-factor verification with your other accounts — for your bank, your finances, your credit card, and any number of things. The way it requires an extra one-time code in addition to your login and password makes life far tougher for hackers.
It’s increasingly common to see nowadays, where all manner of online services only allow access to your accounts after you’ve provided a one-time passcode sent to your email or smartphone. That’s where two-step verification comes in. You get sent a code as part of your usual login process (usually a six-digit number), and then you enter that along with your username and password.
Some online services also offer the option to use an authenticator app, which sends the code to a secure app rather than via email or your smartphone. Authenticator apps work much in the same way, yet they offer three unique features:
Google, Microsoft, and others offer authenticator apps if you want to go that route. You can get a good list of options by checking out the “editor’s picks” at your app store or in trusted tech publications.
Whichever form of authentication you use, always keep that secure code to yourself. It’s yours and yours alone. Anyone who asks for that code, say someone masquerading as a customer service rep, is trying to scam you. With that code, and your username/password combo, they can get into your account.
Passwords and two-step verification work hand-in-hand to keep you safer. Yet not any old password will do. You’ll want a strong, unique password. Here’s how that breaks down:
Now, with strong passwords in place, you can get to setting up multi-factor verification on your social media accounts.
When you set up two-factor authentication on Facebook, you’ll be asked to choose one of three security methods:
And here’s a link to the company’s full walkthrough: https://www.facebook.com/help/148233965247823
When you set up two-factor authentication on Instagram, you’ll be asked to choose one of three security methods: an authentication app, text message, or WhatsApp.
And here’s a link to the company’s full walkthrough: https://help.instagram.com/566810106808145
And here’s a link to the company’s full walkthrough: https://faq.whatsapp.com/1920866721452534
And here’s a link to the company’s full walkthrough: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185839?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop
1. TapProfileat the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap the Menu button at the top.
3. Tap Settings and Privacy, then Security.
4. Tap 2-step verification and choose at least two verification methods: SMS (text), email, and authenticator app.
5. Tap Turn on to confirm.
And here’s a link to the company’s full walkthrough: https://support.tiktok.com/en/account-and-privacy/personalized-ads-and-data/how-your-phone-number-is-used-on-tiktok
The post How to Protect Your Social Media Passwords with Multi-factor Verification appeared first on McAfee Blog.
The financial technology firm Finastra is investigating the alleged large-scale theft of information from its internal file transfer platform, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. Finastra, which provides software and services to 45 of the world’s top 50 banks, notified customers of the security incident after a cybercriminal began selling more than 400 gigabytes of data purportedly stolen from the company.
London-based Finastra has offices in 42 countries and reported $1.9 billion in revenues last year. The company employs more than 7,000 people and serves approximately 8,100 financial institutions around the world. A major part of Finastra’s day-to-day business involves processing huge volumes of digital files containing instructions for wire and bank transfers on behalf of its clients.
On November 8, 2024, Finastra notified financial institution customers that on Nov. 7 its security team detected suspicious activity on Finastra’s internally hosted file transfer platform. Finastra also told customers that someone had begun selling large volumes of files allegedly stolen from its systems.
“On November 8, a threat actor communicated on the dark web claiming to have data exfiltrated from this platform,” reads Finastra’s disclosure, a copy of which was shared by a source at one of the customer firms.
“There is no direct impact on customer operations, our customers’ systems, or Finastra’s ability to serve our customers currently,” the notice continued. “We have implemented an alternative secure file sharing platform to ensure continuity, and investigations are ongoing.”
But its notice to customers does indicate the intruder managed to extract or “exfiltrate” an unspecified volume of customer data.
“The threat actor did not deploy malware or tamper with any customer files within the environment,” the notice reads. “Furthermore, no files other than the exfiltrated files were viewed or accessed. We remain focused on determining the scope and nature of the data contained within the exfiltrated files.”
In a written statement in response to questions about the incident, Finastra said it has been “actively and transparently responding to our customers’ questions and keeping them informed about what we do and do not yet know about the data that was posted.” The company also shared an updated communication to its clients, which said while it was still investigating the root cause, “initial evidence points to credentials that were compromised.”
“Additionally, we have been sharing Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) and our CISO has been speaking directly with our customers’ security teams to provide updates on the investigation and our eDiscovery process,” the statement continues. Here is the rest of what they shared:
“In terms of eDiscovery, we are analyzing the data to determine what specific customers were affected, while simultaneously assessing and communicating which of our products are not dependent on the specific version of the SFTP platform that was compromised. The impacted SFTP platform is not used by all customers and is not the default platform used by Finastra or its customers to exchange data files associated with a broad suite of our products, so we are working as quickly as possible to rule out affected customers. However, as you can imagine, this is a time-intensive process because we have many large customers that leverage different Finastra products in different parts of their business. We are prioritizing accuracy and transparency in our communications.
Importantly, for any customers who are deemed to be affected, we will be reaching out and working with them directly.”
On Nov. 8, a cybercriminal using the nickname “abyss0” posted on the English-language cybercrime community BreachForums that they’d stolen files belonging to some of Finastra’s largest banking clients. The data auction did not specify a starting or “buy it now” price, but said interested buyers should reach out to them on Telegram.
abyss0’s Nov. 7 sales thread on BreachForums included many screenshots showing the file directory listings for various Finastra customers. Image: Ke-la.com.
According to screenshots collected by the cyber intelligence platform Ke-la.com, abyss0 first attempted to sell the data allegedly stolen from Finastra on October 31, but that earlier sales thread did not name the victim company. However, it did reference many of the same banks called out as Finastra customers in the Nov. 8 post on BreachForums.
The original October 31 post from abyss0, where they advertise the sale of data from several large banks that are customers of a large financial software company. Image: Ke-la.com.
The October sales thread also included a starting price: $20,000. By Nov. 3, that price had been reduced to $10,000. A review of abyss0’s posts to BreachForums reveals this user has offered to sell databases stolen in several dozen other breaches advertised over the past six months.
The apparent timeline of this breach suggests abyss0 gained access to Finastra’s file sharing system at least a week before the company says it first detected suspicious activity, and that the Nov. 7 activity cited by Finastra may have been the intruder returning to exfiltrate more data.
Maybe abyss0 found a buyer who paid for their early retirement. We may never know, because this person has effectively vanished. The Telegram account that abyss0 listed in their sales thread appears to have been suspended or deleted. Likewise, abyss0’s account on BreachForums no longer exists, and all of their sales threads have since disappeared.
It seems improbable that both Telegram and BreachForums would have given this user the boot at the same time. The simplest explanation is that something spooked abyss0 enough for them to abandon a number of pending sales opportunities, in addition to a well-manicured cybercrime persona.
In March 2020, Finastra suffered a ransomware attack that sidelined a number of the company’s core businesses for days. According to reporting from Bloomberg, Finastra was able to recover from that incident without paying a ransom.
This is a developing story. Updates will be noted with timestamps. If you have any additional information about this incident, please reach out to krebsonsecurity @ gmail.com or at protonmail.com.
As 89% of Americans plan to shop online during this holiday shopping season, many say they’re more concerned about being scammed online than they were last year. One big reason why—AI deepfakes.
Our 2024 Global Holiday Shopping Scams Study uncovered that 70% of American shoppers say AI-driven scams are changing the way they shop online.
In all, they think scam emails and messages will be more believable than ever and that it’ll be harder to tell what’s a real message from a retailer or delivery service. With that in mind, 58% of people say they’ll be more alert than ever to when it comes to fake messages. Another 11% said they’ll do less online shopping because of how AI is helping cybercriminals.
Overall, people say their confidence in spotting online scams is low, particularly when it comes to scams featuring AI-created content. Only 59% of Americans feel confident they can identify deepfakes or AI-generated content.
The effectiveness of deepfake shopping scams has been shown already, 1 in 5 Americans (21%) said they unknowingly paid for fake products endorsed by deepfake celebrities. For Gen Z and Millennials, that number leaps yet higher, with 1 in 3 people aged 18-34 falling victim to a deepfake scam. Meanwhile, older Americans have avoided these scams, with only 5% of shoppers aged 55 and up saying that they’ve fallen victim to one.
Additionally, 1 in 5 Americans (20%) say they or someone they know has fallen victim to a deepfake shopping scam, celebrity-based or otherwise. 70% of those people lost money to the deepfake holiday scam. Of those who lost money:
Across our research, three big findings stood out. The volume of scam messages is only increasing, chasing deals could lead to scams, and shopping on social media has risks of its own.
64% of Americans say they receive most of their scam messages via email, 20% encounter them primarily via text, and 16% find them on social media. These messages fall into several categories:
As the holiday season warms up, 84% of Americans say they’re on the hunt for the best holiday deals. But the rush for discounts could put them at risk. Scammers notoriously underprice hot items to lure in victims.
More than 100 million Americans shop on social media.i While social shopping offers convenience, it also exposes people to new risks, especially as scammers use these platforms to reach victims. We found that shoppers are increasingly turning to social channels, often in significant ways.
This is a great one to start with. Directly typing in the correct address for online stores and retailers is a prime way to avoid scammers online. In the case of retailers that you don’t know much about, the U.S. Better Business Bureau (BBB) asks shoppers to do their research and make sure that retailer has a good reputation. The BBB makes that easier with a listing of retailers you can search simply by typing in their name.
In the U.S., the Fair Credit Billing Act offers the public protection against fraudulent charges on credit cards. Citizens can dispute charges of over $50 for goods and services that were never delivered or otherwise billed incorrectly. (Note that many credit card companies have their own policies that improve upon the Fair Credit Billing Act as well.) However, debit cards don’t get the same protection under the Act. Avoid using a debit card while shopping online and use your credit card instead.
Scammers have to get your contact info from somewhere. Often, they get it from online data brokers and other “people finder” sites. These sites collect and sell massive amounts of personal info to any buyer. You can remove that info from some of the riskiest data brokers with our Personal Data Cleanup service. It can help you remove that info, and with select products it can even manage the removal for you. Likewise, set your social media accounts to “friends and family” only so that your profile info doesn’t show up in search results.
Phishing emails, texts, and sites lure people into clicking links that might lead to malware or handing over their personal info. And they look more believable than ever. If you receive an email or text message asking you to click on a link, it’s best to avoid interacting with the message altogether. Even if it’s a great-sounding deal or indicates it’ll provide useful info such as a parcel delivery update. Always go direct to the source and interact with reputable companies.
Yet better, you can use the combo of our Scam Protection and Web Protection found in our McAfee+ plans. Powered by our AI technology, they detect sketchy links and keep you from clicking on them by mistake.
Many scams are effective because the scammer creates a false sense of urgency or preys on a heightened emotional state. Pause before you rush to interact with any message that is threatening or urgent, especially if it is from an unknown or unlikely sender. The same very much applies for deals and sales online. Scammers will pop up bogus online ads and stores for sought-after gifts, of course with no intention of shipping you anything. Look out for offers that seem priced too low and hard-to-find items that are miraculously in stock at an online store you’ve never heard of. Stick with reputable retailers instead.
Survey methodology
The survey, which focused on the topic of deepfakes, scam messages, and holiday shopping, was conducted online in November 2024. 7,128 adults, age 18+, In 7 countries (US, Australia, India, UK, France, Germany, Japan), participated in the study.
The post How AI Deepfakes and Scams Are Changing the Way We Shop Online appeared first on McAfee Blog.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is urging police departments and governments worldwide to beef up security around their email systems, citing a recent increase in cybercriminal services that use hacked police email accounts to send unauthorized subpoenas and customer data requests to U.S.-based technology companies.
In an alert (PDF) published this week, the FBI said it has seen an uptick in postings on criminal forums regarding the process of emergency data requests (EDRs) and the sale of email credentials stolen from police departments and government agencies.
“Cybercriminals are likely gaining access to compromised US and foreign government email addresses and using them to conduct fraudulent emergency data requests to US based companies, exposing the personal information of customers to further use for criminal purposes,” the FBI warned.
In the United States, when federal, state or local law enforcement agencies wish to obtain information about an account at a technology provider — such as the account’s email address, or what Internet addresses a specific cell phone account has used in the past — they must submit an official court-ordered warrant or subpoena.
Virtually all major technology companies serving large numbers of users online have departments that routinely review and process such requests, which are typically granted (eventually, and at least in part) as long as the proper documents are provided and the request appears to come from an email address connected to an actual police department domain name.
In some cases, a cybercriminal will offer to forge a court-approved subpoena and send that through a hacked police or government email account. But increasingly, thieves are relying on fake EDRs, which allow investigators to attest that people will be bodily harmed or killed unless a request for account data is granted expeditiously.
The trouble is, these EDRs largely bypass any official review and do not require the requester to supply any court-approved documents. Also, it is difficult for a company that receives one of these EDRs to immediately determine whether it is legitimate.
In this scenario, the receiving company finds itself caught between two unsavory outcomes: Failing to immediately comply with an EDR — and potentially having someone’s blood on their hands — or possibly leaking a customer record to the wrong person.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, compliance with such requests tends to be extremely high. For example, in its most recent transparency report (PDF) Verizon said it received more than 127,000 law enforcement demands for customer data in the second half of 2023 — including more than 36,000 EDRs — and that the company provided records in response to approximately 90 percent of requests.
One English-speaking cybercriminal who goes by the nicknames “Pwnstar” and “Pwnipotent” has been selling fake EDR services on both Russian-language and English cybercrime forums. Their prices range from $1,000 to $3,000 per successful request, and they claim to control “gov emails from over 25 countries,” including Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Hungary, India, Kenya, Jordan, Lebanon, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Vietnam.
“I cannot 100% guarantee every order will go through,” Pwnstar explained. “This is social engineering at the highest level and there will be failed attempts at times. Don’t be discouraged. You can use escrow and I give full refund back if EDR doesn’t go through and you don’t receive your information.”
An ad from Pwnstar for fake EDR services.
A review of EDR vendors across many cybercrime forums shows that some fake EDR vendors sell the ability to send phony police requests to specific social media platforms, including forged court-approved documents. Others simply sell access to hacked government or police email accounts, and leave it up to the buyer to forge any needed documents.
“When you get account, it’s yours, your account, your liability,” reads an ad in October on BreachForums. “Unlimited Emergency Data Requests. Once Paid, the Logins are completely Yours. Reset as you please. You would need to Forge Documents to Successfully Emergency Data Request.”
Still other fake EDR service vendors claim to sell hacked or fraudulently created accounts on Kodex, a startup that aims to help tech companies do a better job screening out phony law enforcement data requests. Kodex is trying to tackle the problem of fake EDRs by working directly with the data providers to pool information about police or government officials submitting these requests, with an eye toward making it easier for everyone to spot an unauthorized EDR.
If police or government officials wish to request records regarding Coinbase customers, for example, they must first register an account on Kodexglobal.com. Kodex’s systems then assign that requestor a score or credit rating, wherein officials who have a long history of sending valid legal requests will have a higher rating than someone sending an EDR for the first time.
It is not uncommon to see fake EDR vendors claim the ability to send data requests through Kodex, with some even sharing redacted screenshots of police accounts at Kodex.
Matt Donahue is the former FBI agent who founded Kodex in 2021. Donahue said just because someone can use a legitimate police department or government email to create a Kodex account doesn’t mean that user will be able to send anything. Donahue said even if one customer gets a fake request, Kodex is able to prevent the same thing from happening to another.
Kodex told KrebsOnSecurity that over the past 12 months it has processed a total of 1,597 EDRs, and that 485 of those requests (~30 percent) failed a second-level verification. Kodex reports it has suspended nearly 4,000 law enforcement users in the past year, including:
-1,521 from the Asia-Pacific region;
-1,290 requests from Europe, the Middle East and Asia;
-460 from police departments and agencies in the United States;
-385 from entities in Latin America, and;
-285 from Brazil.
Donahue said 60 technology companies are now routing all law enforcement data requests through Kodex, including an increasing number of financial institutions and cryptocurrency platforms. He said one concern shared by recent prospective customers is that crooks are seeking to use phony law enforcement requests to freeze and in some cases seize funds in specific accounts.
“What’s being conflated [with EDRs] is anything that doesn’t involve a formal judge’s signature or legal process,” Donahue said. “That can include control over data, like an account freeze or preservation request.”
In a hypothetical example, a scammer uses a hacked government email account to request that a service provider place a hold on a specific bank or crypto account that is allegedly subject to a garnishment order, or party to crime that is globally sanctioned, such as terrorist financing or child exploitation.
A few days or weeks later, the same impersonator returns with a request to seize funds in the account, or to divert the funds to a custodial wallet supposedly controlled by government investigators.
“In terms of overall social engineering attacks, the more you have a relationship with someone the more they’re going to trust you,” Donahue said. “If you send them a freeze order, that’s a way to establish trust, because [the first time] they’re not asking for information. They’re just saying, ‘Hey can you do me a favor?’ And that makes the [recipient] feel valued.”
Echoing the FBI’s warning, Donahue said far too many police departments in the United States and other countries have poor account security hygiene, and often do not enforce basic account security precautions — such as requiring phishing-resistant multifactor authentication.
How are cybercriminals typically gaining access to police and government email accounts? Donahue said it’s still mostly email-based phishing, and credentials that are stolen by opportunistic malware infections and sold on the dark web. But as bad as things are internationally, he said, many law enforcement entities in the United States still have much room for improvement in account security.
“Unfortunately, a lot of this is phishing or malware campaigns,” Donahue said. “A lot of global police agencies don’t have stringent cybersecurity hygiene, but even U.S. dot-gov emails get hacked. Over the last nine months, I’ve reached out to CISA (the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) over a dozen times about .gov email addresses that were compromised and that CISA was unaware of.”
A 25-year-old man in Ontario, Canada has been arrested for allegedly stealing data from and extorting more than 160 companies that used the cloud data service Snowflake.
Image: https://www.pomerium.com/blog/the-real-lessons-from-the-snowflake-breach
On October 30, Canadian authorities arrested Alexander Moucka, a.k.a. Connor Riley Moucka of Kitchener, Ontario, on a provisional arrest warrant from the United States. Bloomberg first reported Moucka’s alleged ties to the Snowflake hacks on Monday.
At the end of 2023, malicious hackers learned that many large companies had uploaded huge volumes of sensitive customer data to Snowflake accounts that were protected with little more than a username and password (no multi-factor authentication required). After scouring darknet markets for stolen Snowflake account credentials, the hackers began raiding the data storage repositories used by some of the world’s largest corporations.
Among those was AT&T, which disclosed in July that cybercriminals had stolen personal information and phone and text message records for roughly 110 million people — nearly all of its customers. Wired.com reported in July that AT&T paid a hacker $370,000 to delete stolen phone records.
A report on the extortion attacks from the incident response firm Mandiant notes that Snowflake victim companies were privately approached by the hackers, who demanded a ransom in exchange for a promise not to sell or leak the stolen data. All told, more than 160 Snowflake customers were relieved of data, including TicketMaster, Lending Tree, Advance Auto Parts and Neiman Marcus.
Moucka is alleged to have used the hacker handles Judische and Waifu, among many others. These monikers correspond to a prolific cybercriminal whose exploits were the subject of a recent story published here about the overlap between Western, English-speaking cybercriminals and extremist groups that harass and extort minors into harming themselves or others.
On May 2, 2024, Judische claimed on the fraud-focused Telegram channel Star Chat that they had hacked Santander Bank, one of the first known Snowflake victims. Judische would repeat that claim in Star Chat on May 13 — the day before Santander publicly disclosed a data breach — and would periodically blurt out the names of other Snowflake victims before their data even went up for sale on the cybercrime forums.
404 Media reports that at a court hearing in Ontario this morning, Moucka called in from a prison phone and said he was seeking legal aid to hire an attorney.
Mandiant has attributed the Snowflake compromises to a group it calls “UNC5537,” with members based in North America and Turkey. Sources close to the investigation tell KrebsOnSecurity the UNC5537 member in Turkey is John Erin Binns, an elusive American man indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for a 2021 breach at T-Mobile that exposed the personal information of at least 76.6 million customers.
Update: The Justice Department has unsealed an indictment (PDF) against Moucka and Binns, charging them with one count of conspiracy; 10 counts of wire fraud; four counts of computer fraud and abuse; two counts of extortion in relation to computer fraud; and two counts aggravated identity theft.
In a statement on Moucka’s arrest, Mandiant said UNC5537 aka Alexander ‘Connor’ Moucka has proven to be one of the most consequential threat actors of 2024.
“In April 2024, UNC5537 launched a campaign, systematically compromising misconfigured SaaS instances across over a hundred organizations,” wrote Austin Larsen, Mandiant’s senior threat analyst. “The operation, which left organizations reeling from significant data loss and extortion attempts, highlighted the alarming scale of harm an individual can cause using off-the-shelf tools.”
Sources involved in the investigation said UNC5537 has focused on hacking into telecommunications companies around the world. Those sources told KrebsOnSecurity that Binns and Judische are suspected of stealing data from India’s largest state-run telecommunications firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BNSL), and that the duo even bragged about being able to intercept or divert phone calls and text messages for a large portion of the population of India.
Judische appears to have outsourced the sale of databases from victim companies who refuse to pay, delegating some of that work to a cybercriminal who uses the nickname Kiberphant0m on multiple forums. In late May 2024, Kiberphant0m began advertising the sale of hundreds of gigabytes of data stolen from BSNL.
“Information is worth several million dollars but I’m selling for pretty cheap,” Kiberphant0m wrote of the BSNL data in a post on the English-language cybercrime community Breach Forums. “Negotiate a deal in Telegram.”
Also in May 2024, Kiberphant0m took to the Russian-language hacking forum XSS to sell more than 250 gigabytes of data stolen from an unnamed mobile telecom provider in Asia, including a database of all active customers and software allowing the sending of text messages to all customers.
On September 3, 2024, Kiberphant0m posted a sales thread on XSS titled “Selling American Telecom Access (100B+ Revenue).” Kiberphant0m’s asking price of $200,000 was apparently too high because they reposted the sales thread on Breach Forums a month later, with a headline that more clearly explained the data was stolen from Verizon‘s “push-to-talk” (PTT) customers — primarily U.S. government agencies and first responders.
404Media reported recently that the breach does not appear to impact the main consumer Verizon network. Rather, the hackers broke into a third party provider and stole data on Verizon’s PTT systems, which are a separate product marketed towards public sector agencies, enterprises, and small businesses to communicate internally.
Investigators say Moucka shared a home in Kitchener with other tenants, but not his family. His mother was born in Chechnya, and he speaks Russian in addition to French and English. Moucka’s father died of a drug overdose at age 26, when the defendant was roughly five years old.
A person claiming to be Judische began communicating with this author more than three months ago on Signal after KrebsOnSecurity started asking around about hacker nicknames previously used by Judische over the years.
Judische admitted to stealing and ransoming data from Snowflake customers, but he said he’s not interested in selling the information, and that others have done this with some of the data sets he stole.
“I’m not really someone that sells data unless it’s crypto [databases] or credit cards because they’re the only thing I can find buyers for that actually have money for the data,” Judische told KrebsOnSecurity. “The rest is just ransom.”
Judische has sent this reporter dozens of unsolicited and often profane messages from several different Signal accounts, all of which claimed to be an anonymous tipster sharing different identifying details for Judische. This appears to have been an elaborate effort by Judische to “detrace” his movements online and muddy the waters about his identity.
Judische frequently claimed he had unparalleled “opsec” or operational security, a term that refers to the ability to compartmentalize and obfuscate one’s tracks online. In an effort to show he was one step ahead of investigators, Judische shared information indicating someone had given him a Mandiant researcher’s assessment of who and where they thought he was. Mandiant says those were discussion points shared with select reporters in advance of the researcher’s recent talk at the LabsCon security conference.
But in a conversation with KrebsOnSecurity on October 26, Judische acknowledged it was likely that the authorities were closing in on him, and said he would seriously answer certain questions about his personal life.
“They’re coming after me for sure,” he said.
In several previous conversations, Judische referenced suffering from an unspecified personality disorder, and when pressed said he has a condition called “schizotypal personality disorder” (STPD).
According to the Cleveland Clinic, schizotypal personality disorder is marked by a consistent pattern of intense discomfort with relationships and social interactions: “People with STPD have unusual thoughts, speech and behaviors, which usually hinder their ability to form and maintain relationships.”
Judische said he was prescribed medication for his psychological issues, but that he doesn’t take his meds. Which might explain why he never leaves his home.
“I never go outside,” Judische allowed. “I’ve never had a friend or true relationship not online nor in person. I see people as vehicles to achieve my ends no matter how friendly I may seem on the surface, which you can see by how fast I discard people who are loyal or [that] I’ve known a long time.”
Judische later admitted he doesn’t have an official STPD diagnosis from a physician, but said he knows that he exhibits all the signs of someone with this condition.
“I can’t actually get diagnosed with that either,” Judische shared. “Most countries put you on lists and restrict you from certain things if you have it.”
Asked whether he has always lived at his current residence, Judische replied that he had to leave his hometown for his own safety.
“I can’t live safely where I’m from without getting robbed or arrested,” he said, without offering more details.
A source familiar with the investigation said Moucka previously lived in Quebec, which he allegedly fled after being charged with harassing others on the social network Discord.
Judische claims to have made at least $4 million in his Snowflake extortions. Judische said he and others frequently targeted business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, staffing firms that handle customer service for a wide range of organizations. They also went after managed service providers (MSPs) that oversee IT support and security for multiple companies, he claimed.
“Snowflake isn’t even the biggest BPO/MSP multi-company dataset on our networks, but what’s been exfiltrated from them is well over 100TB,” Judische bragged. “Only ones that don’t pay get disclosed (unless they disclose it themselves). A lot of them don’t even do their SEC filing and just pay us to fuck off.”
The other half of UNC5537 — 24-year-old John Erin Binns — was arrested in Turkey in late May 2024, and currently resides in a Turkish prison. However, it is unclear if Binns faces any immediate threat of extradition to the United States, where he is currently wanted on criminal hacking charges tied to the 2021 breach at T-Mobile.
A person familiar with the investigation said Binns’s application for Turkish citizenship was inexplicably approved after his incarceration, leading to speculation that Binns may have bought his way out of a sticky legal situation.
Under the Turkish constitution, a Turkish citizen cannot be extradited to a foreign state. Turkey has been criticized for its “golden passport” program, which provides citizenship and sanctuary for anyone willing to pay several hundred thousand dollars.
This is an image of a passport that Binns shared in one of many unsolicited emails to KrebsOnSecurity since 2021. Binns never explained why he sent this in Feb. 2023.
Binns’s alleged hacker alter egos — “IRDev” and “IntelSecrets” — were at once feared and revered on several cybercrime-focused Telegram communities, because he was known to possess a powerful weapon: A massive botnet. From reviewing the Telegram channels Binns frequented, we can see that others in those communities — including Judische — heavily relied on Binns and his botnet for a variety of cybercriminal purposes.
The IntelSecrets nickname corresponds to an individual who has claimed responsibility for modifying the source code for the Mirai “Internet of Things” botnet to create a variant known as “Satori,” and supplying it to others who used it for criminal gain and were later caught and prosecuted.
Since 2020, Binns has filed a flood of lawsuits naming various federal law enforcement officers and agencies — including the FBI, the CIA, and the U.S. Special Operations Command (PDF), demanding that the government turn over information collected about him and seeking restitution for his alleged kidnapping at the hands of the CIA.
Binns claims he was kidnapped in Turkey and subjected to various forms of psychological and physical torture. According to Binns, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) falsely told their counterparts in Turkey that he was a supporter or member of the Islamic State (ISIS), a claim he says led to his detention and torture by the Turkish authorities.
However, in a 2020 lawsuit he filed against the CIA, Binns himself acknowledged having visited a previously ISIS-controlled area of Syria prior to moving to Turkey in 2017.
A segment of a lawsuit Binns filed in 2020 against the CIA, in which he alleges U.S. put him on a terror watch list after he traveled to Syria in 2017.
Sources familiar with the investigation told KrebsOnSecurity that Binns was so paranoid about possible surveillance on him by American and Turkish intelligence agencies that his erratic behavior and online communications actually brought about the very government snooping that he feared.
In several online chats in late 2023 on Discord, IRDev lamented being lured into a law enforcement sting operation after trying to buy a rocket launcher online. A person close to the investigation confirmed that at the beginning of 2023, IRDev began making earnest inquiries about how to purchase a Stinger, an American-made portable weapon that operates as an infrared surface-to-air missile.
Sources told KrebsOnSecurity Binns’ repeated efforts to purchase the projectile earned him multiple visits from the Turkish authorities, who were justifiably curious why he kept seeking to acquire such a powerful weapon.
A careful study of Judische’s postings on Telegram and Discord since 2019 shows this user is more widely known under the nickname “Waifu,” a moniker that corresponds to one of the more accomplished “SIM swappers” in the English-language cybercrime community over the years.
SIM swapping involves phishing, tricking or bribing mobile phone company employees for credentials needed to redirect a target’s mobile phone number to a device the attackers control — allowing thieves to intercept incoming text messages and phone calls.
Several SIM-swapping channels on Telegram maintain a frequently updated leaderboard of the 100 richest SIM-swappers, as well as the hacker handles associated with specific cybercrime groups (Waifu is ranked #24). That list has long included Waifu on a roster of hackers for a group that called itself “Beige.”
The term “Beige Group” came up in reporting on two stories published here in 2020. The first was in an August 2020 piece called Voice Phishers Targeting Corporate VPNs, which warned that the COVID-19 epidemic had brought a wave of targeted voice phishing attacks that tried to trick work-at-home employees into providing access to their employers’ networks. Frequent targets of the Beige group included employees at numerous top U.S. banks, ISPs, and mobile phone providers.
The second time Beige Group was mentioned by sources was in reporting on a breach at the domain registrar GoDaddy. In November 2020, intruders thought to be associated with the Beige Group tricked a GoDaddy employee into installing malicious software, and with that access they were able to redirect the web and email traffic for multiple cryptocurrency trading platforms. Other frequent targets of the Beige group included employees at numerous top U.S. banks, ISPs, and mobile phone providers.
Judische’s various Telegram identities have long claimed involvement in the 2020 GoDaddy breach, and he didn’t deny his alleged role when asked directly. Judische said he prefers voice phishing or “vishing” attacks that result in the target installing data-stealing malware, as opposed to tricking the user into entering their username, password and one-time code.
“Most of my ops involve malware [because] credential access burns too fast,” Judische explained.
The Telegram channels that the Judische/Waifu accounts frequented over the years show this user divided their time between posting in channels dedicated to financial cybercrime, and harassing and stalking others in harm communities like Leak Society and Court.
Both of these Telegram communities are known for victimizing children through coordinated online campaigns of extortion, doxing, swatting and harassment. People affiliated with harm groups like Court and Leak Society will often recruit new members by lurking on gaming platforms, social media sites and mobile applications that are popular with young people, including Discord, Minecraft, Roblox, Steam, Telegram, and Twitch.
“This type of offence usually starts with a direct message through gaming platforms and can move to more private chatrooms on other virtual platforms, typically one with video enabled features, where the conversation quickly becomes sexualized or violent,” warns a recent alert from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) about the rise of sextortion groups on social media channels.
“One of the tactics being used by these actors is sextortion, however, they are not using it to extract money or for sexual gratification,” the RCMP continued. “Instead they use it to further manipulate and control victims to produce more harmful and violent content as part of their ideological objectives and radicalization pathway.”
Some of the largest such known groups include those that go by the names 764, CVLT, Kaskar, 7997, 8884, 2992, 6996, 555, Slit Town, 545, 404, NMK, 303, and H3ll.
On the various cybercrime-oriented channels Judische frequented, he often lied about his or others’ involvement in various breaches. But Judische also at times shared nuggets of truth about his past, particularly when discussing the early history and membership of specific Telegram- and Discord-based cybercrime and harm groups.
Judische claimed in multiple chats, including on Leak Society and Court, that they were an early member of the Atomwaffen Division (AWD), a white supremacy group whose members are suspected of having committed multiple murders in the U.S. since 2017.
In 2019, KrebsOnSecurity exposed how a loose-knit group of neo-Nazis, some of whom were affiliated with AWD, had doxed and/or swatted nearly three dozen journalists at a range of media publications. Swatting involves communicating a false police report of a bomb threat or hostage situation and tricking authorities into sending a heavily armed police response to a targeted address.
Judsiche also told a fellow denizen of Court that years ago he was active in an older harm community called “RapeLash,” a truly vile Discord server known for attracting Atomwaffen members. A 2018 retrospective on RapeLash posted to the now defunct neo-Nazi forum Fascist Forge explains that RapeLash was awash in gory, violent images and child pornography.
A Fascist Forge member named “Huddy” recalled that RapeLash was the third incarnation of an extremist community also known as “FashWave,” short for Fascist Wave.
“I have no real knowledge of what happened with the intermediary phase known as ‘FashWave 2.0,’ but FashWave 3.0 houses multiple known Satanists and other degenerates connected with AWD, one of which got arrested on possession of child pornography charges, last I heard,” Huddy shared.
In June 2024, a Mandiant employee told Bloomberg that UNC5537 members have made death threats against cybersecurity experts investigating the hackers, and that in one case the group used artificial intelligence to create fake nude photos of a researcher to harass them.
Allison Nixon is chief research officer with the New York-based cybersecurity firm Unit 221B. Nixon is among several researchers who have faced harassment and specific threats of physical violence from Judische.
Nixon said Judische is likely to argue in court that his self-described psychological disorder(s) should somehow excuse his long career in cybercrime and in harming others.
“They ran a misinformation campaign in a sloppy attempt to cover up the hacking campaign,” Nixon said of Judische. “Coverups are an acknowledgment of guilt, which will undermine a mental illness defense in court. We expect that violent hackers from the [cybercrime community] will experience increasingly harsh sentences as the crackdown continues.”
5:34 p.m. ET: Updated story to include a clarification from Mandiant. Corrected Moucka’s age.
Nov. 21, 2024: Included link to a criminal indictment against Moucka and Binns.
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A number of cybercriminal innovations are making it easier for scammers to cash in on your upcoming travel plans. This story examines a recent spear-phishing campaign that ensued when a California hotel had its booking.com credentials stolen. We’ll also explore an array of cybercrime services aimed at phishers who target hotels that rely on the world’s most visited travel website.
According to the market share website statista.com, booking.com is by far the Internet’s busiest travel service, with nearly 550 million visits in September. KrebsOnSecurity last week heard from a reader whose close friend received a targeted phishing message within the Booking mobile app just minutes after making a reservation at a California hotel.
The missive bore the name of the hotel and referenced details from their reservation, claiming that booking.com’s anti-fraud system required additional information about the customer before the reservation could be finalized.
The phishing message our reader’s friend received after making a reservation at booking.com in late October.
In an email to KrebsOnSecurity, booking.com confirmed one of its partners had suffered a security incident that allowed unauthorized access to customer booking information.
“Our security teams are currently investigating the incident you mentioned and can confirm that it was indeed a phishing attack targeting one of our accommodation partners, which unfortunately is not a new situation and quite common across industries,” booking.com replied. “Importantly, we want to clarify that there has been no compromise of Booking.com’s internal systems.”
The phony booking.com website generated by visiting the link in the text message.
Booking.com said it now requires 2FA, which forces partners to provide a one-time passcode from a mobile authentication app (Pulse) in addition to a username and password.
“2FA is required and enforced, including for partners to access payment details from customers securely,” a booking.com spokesperson wrote. “That’s why the cybercriminals follow-up with messages to try and get customers to make payments outside of our platform.”
“That said, the phishing attacks stem from partners’ machines being compromised with malware, which has enabled them to also gain access to the partners’ accounts and to send the messages that your reader has flagged,” they continued.
It’s unclear, however, if the company’s 2FA requirement is enforced for all or just newer partners. Booking.com did not respond to questions about that, and its current account security advice urges customers to enable 2FA.
A scan of social media networks showed this is not an uncommon scam.
In November 2023, the security firm SecureWorks detailed how scammers targeted booking.com hospitality partners with data-stealing malware. SecureWorks said these attacks had been going on since at least March 2023.
“The hotel did not enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on its Booking.com access, so logging into the account with the stolen credentials was easy,” SecureWorks said of the booking.com partner it investigated.
In June 2024, booking.com told the BBC that phishing attacks targeting travelers had increased 900 percent, and that thieves taking advantage of new artificial intelligence (AI) tools were the primary driver of this trend.
Booking.com told the BCC the company had started using AI to fight AI-based phishing attacks. Booking.com’s statement said their investments in that arena “blocked 85 million fraudulent reservations over more than 1.5 million phishing attempts in 2023.”
The domain name in the phony booking.com website sent to our reader’s friend — guestssecureverification[.]com — was registered to the email address ilotirabec207@gmail.com. According to DomainTools.com, this email address was used to register more than 700 other phishing domains in the past month alone.
Many of the 700+ domains appear to target hospitality companies, including platforms like booking.com and Airbnb. Others seem crafted to phish users of Shopify, Steam, and a variety of financial platforms. A full, defanged list of domains is available here.
A cursory review of recent posts across dozens of cybercrime forums monitored by the security firm Intel 471 shows there is a great demand for compromised booking.com accounts belonging to hotels and other partners.
One post last month on the Russian-language hacking forum BHF offered up to $5,000 for each hotel account. This seller claims to help people monetize hacked booking.com partners, apparently by using the stolen credentials to set up fraudulent listings.
A service advertised on the English-language crime community BreachForums in October courts phishers who may need help with certain aspects of their phishing campaigns targeting booking.com partners. Those include more than two million hotel email addresses, and services designed to help phishers organize large volumes of phished records. Customers can interact with the service via an automated Telegram bot.
Some cybercriminals appear to have used compromised booking.com accounts to power their own travel agencies catering to fellow scammers, with up to 50 percent discounts on hotel reservations through booking.com. Others are selling ready-to-use “config” files designed to make it simple to conduct automated login attempts against booking.com administrator accounts.
SecureWorks found the phishers targeting booking.com partner hotels used malware to steal credentials. But today’s thieves can just as easily just visit crime bazaars online and purchase stolen credentials to cloud services that do not enforce 2FA for all accounts.
That is exactly what transpired over the past year with many customers of the cloud data storage giant Snowflake. In late 2023, cybercriminals figured out that while tons of companies had stashed enormous amounts of customer data at Snowflake, many of those customer accounts were not protected by 2FA.
Snowflake responded by making 2FA mandatory for all new customers. But that change came only after thieves used stolen credentials to siphon data from 160 companies — including AT&T, Lending Tree and TicketMaster.
In today’s fast-paced educational environment, productivity is a key determinant of academic success. Enter AI PCs—computers enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities—that are reshaping how students interact with productivity tools. AI PCs are designed with built-in AI capabilities that optimize performance and user experience by leveraging machine learning algorithms to enhance software applications. This makes routine tasks more efficient and allows for a more personalized user experience.
For students, this means AI tools are becoming not just supplementary resources but integral parts of their academic toolkit. A new report, “The Dawn of the AI Era: Teens, Parents, and the Adoption of Generative AI at Home and School,” found that seven in 10 teenagers say they have used at least one type of generative AI tool, with 40% report using generative AI for school assignments.
From advanced writing assistants to research enhancers, these AI-driven machines have the power to elevate the academic experience. This blog post will explore how AI PCs integrate with AI tools to boost productivity and offer actionable tips to maximize these features for academic success.
ChatGPT, an AI language model developed by OpenAI, serves as a powerful research assistant, capable of summarizing articles, generating topic ideas, and answering questions on a wide range of subjects. When integrated into an AI PC, ChatGPT can be accessed directly from the desktop or through dedicated applications, providing students with on-demand research support. Several other AI tools can also greatly benefit students in research and writing, such as Google Bard, Jasper, and Copy.ai.
McAfee Tip: Use an AI tool like ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas and outline essays or research papers. For instance, if you’re writing a paper on climate change, ChatGPT can help you outline key points, suggest relevant sources, and even provide a summary of complex scientific articles.
Beyond research, AI tools can assist with writing tasks by generating content, offering suggestions, and even helping with creative projects. Its ability to understand context and generate coherent text means that students can use it for drafting essays, creating reports, or even composing emails.
McAfee Tip: Check with your school policies to ensure you remain compliant with their rules around AI usage. For example, use the tool to generate insights and ideas, but cross-check and cite any specific sources or information included in your work to maintain academic integrity.
Grammarly, an AI-powered writing assistant, is renowned for its grammar and style-checking capabilities. On an AI PC, Grammarly is not just a browser extension but a deeply integrated tool that offers real-time feedback on spelling, punctuation, and stylistic errors. This seamless integration ensures that students can produce polished and professional documents with ease.
McAfee Tip: Use Grammarly’s advanced features, such as clarity and engagement suggestions, to help enhance the readability of your work. Before submitting any paper, run it through Grammarly’s plagiarism checker to ensure that all sources are properly cited and that your work is original.
AI PCs can streamline study sessions by using tools to create comprehensive study guides, generate practice questions, and summarize textbook chapters. For example, AI PCs can integrate with note-taking apps, like Evernote and Microsoft OneNote, to organize lecture notes, create study guides, and sync information across devices. AI features can then assist in summarizing notes and organizing content for easier review.
McAfee Tip: Zotero and Mendeley can help students organize research papers, manage citations, and create bibliographies. Integration with Khan Academy and Coursera on AI PCs allows students to access and interact with educational content, complete with AI-driven recommendations for supplemental learning and practice.
For group projects, AI tools can enhance collaboration by providing a platform for drafting and reviewing content together. AI PCs with integrated ChatGPT can help in brainstorming sessions, while Grammarly ensures that all written contributions are cohesive and professionally presented. Integration with tools like Natural Reader and Otter.ai to convert text to speech and vice versa can help with reviewing study materials and transcribing spoken content into written form.
McAfee Tip: Utilize shared documents with built-in Grammarly and ChatGPT features to collaborate on essays or research papers. This allows for real-time feedback and adjustments, leading to a more polished final product.
In the realm of online research and media consumption, discerning authentic content from manipulated material is increasingly important. This is where McAfee Deepfake Detector comes into play. Integrated into AI PCs, this tool provides real-time alerts when it detects AI-generated audio within videos. By utilizing advanced AI technology, Deepfake Detector helps students quickly identify whether a video’s audio has been manipulated, right from their browser without extra steps.
McAfee Tip: When engaging with online videos for research or study, use Deepfake Detector to ensure the content is authentic. This tool helps you avoid falling for misleading or false information, which is crucial for maintaining the integrity of your academic work.
Ultimately, AI PCs are revolutionizing students’ daily academic routines by integrating advanced AI tools into everyday life. AI-driven tools are offering unprecedented support in writing, research, and creative projects, making them invaluable assets in achieving academic and professional success. By leveraging these capabilities, students can enhance their productivity, produce high-quality work, and prepare for future challenges with confidence.
The post How AI PCs Are Optimizing Productivity Tools for Students appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Change Healthcare says it has notified approximately 100 million Americans that their personal, financial and healthcare records may have been stolen in a February 2024 ransomware attack that caused the largest ever known data breach of protected health information.
Image: Tamer Tuncay, Shutterstock.com.
A ransomware attack at Change Healthcare in the third week of February quickly spawned disruptions across the U.S. healthcare system that reverberated for months, thanks to the company’s central role in processing payments and prescriptions on behalf of thousands of organizations.
In April, Change estimated the breach would affect a “substantial proportion of people in America.” On Oct 22, the healthcare giant notified the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS) that “approximately 100 million notices have been sent regarding this breach.”
A notification letter from Change Healthcare said the breach involved the theft of:
-Health Data: Medical record #s, doctors, diagnoses, medicines, test results, images, care and treatment;
-Billing Records: Records including payment cards, financial and banking records;
-Personal Data: Social Security number; driver’s license or state ID number;
-Insurance Data: Health plans/policies, insurance companies, member/group ID numbers, and Medicaid-Medicare-government payor ID numbers.
The HIPAA Journal reports that in the nine months ending on September 30, 2024, Change’s parent firm United Health Group had incurred $1.521 billion in direct breach response costs, and $2.457 billion in total cyberattack impacts.
Those costs include $22 million the company admitted to paying their extortionists — a ransomware group known as BlackCat and ALPHV — in exchange for a promise to destroy the stolen healthcare data.
That ransom payment went sideways when the affiliate who gave BlackCat access to Change’s network said the crime gang had cheated them out of their share of the ransom. The entire BlackCat ransomware operation shut down after that, absconding with all of the money still owed to affiliates who were hired to install their ransomware.
A breach notification from Change Healthcare.
A few days after BlackCat imploded, the same stolen healthcare data was offered for sale by a competing ransomware affiliate group called RansomHub.
“Affected insurance providers can contact us to prevent leaking of their own data and [remove it] from the sale,” RansomHub’s victim shaming blog announced on April 16. “Change Health and United Health processing of sensitive data for all of these companies is just something unbelievable. For most US individuals out there doubting us, we probably have your personal data.”
It remains unclear if RansomHub ever sold the stolen healthcare data. The chief information security officer for a large academic healthcare system affected by the breach told KrebsOnSecurity they participated in a call with the FBI and were told a third party partner managed to recover at least four terabytes of data that was exfiltrated from Change by the cybercriminal group. The FBI declined to comment.
Change Healthcare’s breach notification letter offers recipients two years of credit monitoring and identity theft protection services from a company called IDX. In the section of the missive titled “Why did this happen?,” Change shared only that “a cybercriminal accessed our computer system without our permission.”
But in June 2024 testimony to the Senate Finance Committee, it emerged that the intruders had stolen or purchased credentials for a Citrix portal used for remote access, and that no multi-factor authentication was required for that account.
Last month, Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced a bill that would require HHS to develop and enforce a set of tough minimum cybersecurity standards for healthcare providers, health plans, clearinghouses and businesses associates. The measure also would remove the existing cap on fines under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which severely limits the financial penalties HHS can issue against providers.
According to the HIPAA Journal, the biggest penalty imposed to date for a HIPAA violation was the paltry $16 million fine against the insurer Anthem Inc., which suffered a data breach in 2015 affecting 78.8 million individuals. Anthem reported revenues of around $80 billion in 2015.
A post about the Change breach from RansomHub on April 8, 2024. Image: Darkbeast, ke-la.com.
There is little that victims of this breach can do about the compromise of their healthcare records. However, because the data exposed includes more than enough information for identity thieves to do their thing, it would be prudent to place a security freeze on your credit file and on that of your family members if you haven’t already.
The best mechanism for preventing identity thieves from creating new accounts in your name is to freeze your credit file with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. This process is now free for all Americans, and simply blocks potential creditors from viewing your credit file. Parents and guardians can now also freeze the credit files for their children or dependents.
Since very few creditors are willing to grant new lines of credit without being able to determine how risky it is to do so, freezing your credit file with the Big Three is a great way to stymie all sorts of ID theft shenanigans. Having a freeze in place does nothing to prevent you from using existing lines of credit you may already have, such as credit cards, mortgage and bank accounts. When and if you ever do need to allow access to your credit file — such as when applying for a loan or new credit card — you will need to lift or temporarily thaw the freeze in advance with one or more of the bureaus.
All three bureaus allow users to place a freeze electronically after creating an account, but all of them try to steer consumers away from enacting a freeze. Instead, the bureaus are hoping consumers will opt for their confusingly named “credit lock” services, which accomplish the same result but allow the bureaus to continue selling access to your file to select partners.
If you haven’t done so in a while, now would be an excellent time to review your credit file for any mischief or errors. By law, everyone is entitled to one free credit report every 12 months from each of the three credit reporting agencies. But the Federal Trade Commission notes that the big three bureaus have permanently extended a program enacted in 2020 that lets you check your credit report at each of the agencies once a week for free.
Think you can spot a fake on social media? It’s getting tougher. Particularly as deepfake technology gets far better and far easier to use.
Here’s why that matters.
You might find yourself among the 50% of Americans who say they get their news on social media at least “sometimes.”[i] Plenty of deepfakes deliberately pose as legitimate news. You might also stumble across promos or deals on social media. Scammers create yet more deepfakes for phony giveaways and bogus investment opportunities.
In short, what you’re seeing might be a fake. And your odds of stumbling across a deepfake on social media are on the climb.
That means using social media today requires more scrutiny and skepticism, which are two of your best tools for spotting deepfakes.
Whether you’re staring down AI-generated text, photography, audio, or video, some straightforward steps can help you spot a fake. Even as AI tools create increasingly convincing deepfakes, a consistent truth applies — they’re lies. And you have ways of calling out a liar.
Malicious deepfakes share something in common. They play on emotions. And they play to biases as well. By stirring up excitement about a “guaranteed” investment or outrage at the apparent words of a politician or public figure, deepfakes cloud judgment. That’s by design. It makes deepfakes more difficult to spot because people want to believe them on some level.
With that, slow down. Especially if you see something that riles you up. This offers one of the best ways to spot a fake. From there, the next step is to validate what you’ve seen or heard.
Because what you’re seeing got posted on social media, you can see who posted the piece of content in question. If it’s a friend, did they repost it? Who was the original poster? Could it be a bot or a bogus account? How long has the account been active? What kind of other posts have popped up on it? If an organization posted it, look it up online. Does it seem reputable? This bit of detective work might not provide a definitive answer, but it can let you know if something seems fishy.
Whether they aim to spread disinformation, commit fraud, or rile up emotions, malicious deepfakes try to pass themselves off as legitimate. Consider a video clip that looks like it got recorded at a press conference. The figure behind the podium says some outrageous things. Did that really happen? Consult other established and respected sources. If they’re not reporting on it, you’re likely dealing with a deepfake.
Moreover, they might report that what you’re looking at is a deepfake that’s making the rounds on the internet. Consider the Taylor Swift “Le Creuset scam” of early 2024. News outlets quickly revealed that the singer was not giving away free, high-end cookware.
A technique called SIFT can help root out a fake. It stands for: Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace the media to the original context. With the SIFT method, you can indeed slow down and determine what’s real.
De-bunking fake news takes time and effort. Often a bit of digging and research too. Professional fact-checkers at news and media organizations do this work daily. Posted for all to see, they provide a quick way to get your answers. Some fact-checking groups include:
This gets to the tricky bit. The AI tools for creating deepfakes continually improve. It’s getting tougher and yet tougher still to spot the signs of a deepfake. The advice we give here now might not broadly apply later. Still, bad actors still use older and less sophisticated tools. As such, they can leave signs.
Look for typos. If you spot some, a human likely did the writing. AI generally writes clean text when it comes to spelling and grammar.
Look for repetition. AI chatbots get trained on volumes and volumes of text. As such, they often latch onto pet terms and phrases that they learned as they were trained. Stylistically, AI chatbots often overlook that repetition.
Look for style (or lack thereof). Today’s chatbots are no Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, or Vladimir Nabokov. They lack style. The text they generate often feels canned and flat. Moreover, they tend to spit out statements, yet with little consideration for how they flow together.
Zoom in. A close look at deepfake photos often reveals inconsistencies and flat-out oddities. Consider this viral picture of the “Puffer Pope” that circulated recently. Several things point toward a bogus image.
Keep an eye on the speaker. A close look at who’s doing the talking in a deepfake video can reveal if it’s a fake. Subtle things reveal themselves. Is the speaker blinking too much? Too little? At all? How about their speech. Does it sync up with their mouth perfectly? These might be signs of a deepfake.
Watch how the speaker moves. In the example of the Ukrainian presidential deepfake, it appears that only President Zelensky’s head moves. Just slightly. This is a sign of lower-grade video deepfake technology. It has difficulty tracking movement. Another possible sign is if the speaker never moves their hand across their face. Once again, that might indicate the work of lesser AI tools. In that case, they render the facial image on the hand.
How does the speaker sound? In the case of audio-only deepfakes, today’s AI tools work best when they’re fed smaller chunks of text to create speech. They don’t work as well with big blocks. This requires creators to stitch those chunks together. As a result, the cadence and flow might sound on the copy side. Also, you might not hear the speaker taking breaths, as normal speakers do.
With AI tools improving so quickly, we can no longer take things at face value. Malicious deepfakes look to deceive, defraud, and disinform. And the people who create them hope you’ll consume their content in one, unthinking gulp. Scrutiny is key today. Fact-checking is a must, particularly as deepfakes look sharper and sharper as the technology evolves.
Plenty of deepfakes can lure you into sketchy corners of the internet. Places where malware and phishing sites take root. Consider using comprehensive online protection software with McAfee+ to keep safe. In addition to several features that protect your devices, privacy, and identity, they can warn you of unsafe sites too. While it might not sniff out AI content (yet), it offers strong protection against bad actors who might use fake news to steal your info or harm your data and devices.
[i] https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet
The post How to Spot a Deepfake on Social Media appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Thinking about deleting your Instagram account? We can show you how.
Before we get to that, you might be interested to find what kind of data Instagram collects about you — and how long Instagram keeps your account data, even after you delete it.
For that answer, we turn to Instagram’s privacy policy page.[i] As you might imagine, the list of what they collect is long — long enough that you’ll want to read it for yourself. Yet, broadly, Instagram provides the following summary as part of its June 2024 Privacy Policy.
Per Instagram they collect:
The last bullet is an important one. Instagram very likely knows about things you do even when you’re not using Instagram. How do they get a hold of that info? Per Instagram, third parties use a mix of “Business Tools,” integrations, and Meta Audience Network technologies to share info.
So, what are these “Business Tools?” Per Instagram, they’re technologies used by website owners and publishers, app developers, and business partners, including advertisers and others. These technologies integrate and share data with Meta (Instagram’s parent company) to understand and measure their products and services. They also help them better reach and serve people who use or might be interested in their products and services.
Also per Instagram, here are examples of info they might receive this way:
Everyone has their own appetite for privacy, and we’ve all known for some time that with using a “free” social media platform comes a price — privacy to some extent or other. The more you know how much a platform knows about you, the better decision you can make about participating on it.
As for how long they keep all that data and info they collect, the answer varies. Per Instagram, “We keep information as long as we need it to provide our Products, comply with legal obligations or protect our or other’s interests. We decide how long we need information on a case-by-case basis.”
Also per Instagram, here’s what they consider when they keep data info:
In short, deleting your Instagram account is no guarantee that your data will immediately get deleted along with it. Per the list above, Instagram’s Privacy Policy allows the platform to keep your data for an indeterminate amount of time.
Per Instagram’s policy, your access to your account and info will be permanently removed 30 days after your request. However, according to Instagram, it may take up to 90 days to complete the deletion process after it begins. Copies of your content may remain after the 90 days in backup storage that Instagram uses to recover in case of a disaster, software error, or other data loss event.
Now, onto the steps for deleting your Instagram account.
From your computer:
More in the bottom left, then click Settings .From your Android device:
or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile. in the top right.From your iOS device:
or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile. in the top right.We suggest one more step in addition to the ones above.
Remove your info from the data broker sites that sell it.
Here’s why you might want to do that … Given the way social media companies share info with third parties, there’s a chance your personal info might have made it onto one or several data broker sites. These sites buy and sell extensive lists of personal to anyone, which ranges anywhere from advertisers to spammers and scammers.
If the thought of your personal info being bought and sold puts you off, there’s something you can do about it. Our Personal Data Cleanup service can scan some of the riskiest data broker sites and show you which ones are selling your personal info. It also provides guidance on how you can remove your data from those sites, and with select products, it can even manage the removal for you.
[i] https://privacycenter.instagram.com/policy/
The post How to Delete Your Instagram Account appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Thinking about deleting your Facebook account? We can show you how.
Before we get to that, you might be interested to find what kind of data Facebook collects about you — and how long Facebook keeps your account data, even after you delete it.
For that answer, we turn to Facebook’s privacy policy page.[i] As you might imagine, the list of what they collect is long—long enough that you’ll want to read it for yourself. Yet, broadly, Facebook provides the following summary as part of its June 2024 Privacy Policy.
Per Facebook, they collect:
The last bullet is an important one. Facebook very likely knows about things you do even when you’re not using Facebook.
How do they know about that? Increasingly, that comes through a technology called “server-side tracking.” It’s a form of ad and behavior tracking where a company’s servers communicate directly with each other. In this case, that’s a company’s servers and Facebook’s servers. It can track custom events like page visits, purchases, and the like. This way, companies can track the performance of their Facebook campaigns. It’s like using tracking cookies, with one important difference — it bypasses the user’s device. (Cookies rely on data stored on your device.) The process is invisible to the user.
How extensive is its use? A recent study by Consumer Reports of more than 700 Facebook users found that the average user was tracked by more than 2,200 companies partly using this technology.[ii] Consumer Reports was quick to state that their findings don’t reflect a representative sample because participants were volunteers, and the results weren’t adjusted for demographics. Yet it is telling that across these 700-plus Facebook users, roughly 7,000 different companies shared their data with Facebook.
Everyone has their own appetite for privacy, and we’ve all known for some time that with using a “free” social media platform comes a price — privacy to some extent or other. The more you know how much a platform knows about you, the better decision you can make about participating in it.
As for how long they keep all that data and info they collect, the answer varies. Per Facebook,
In short, deleting your Facebook account is no guarantee that your data will immediately get deleted along with it. Per the list above, Facebook’s Privacy Policy allows the platform to keep your data for an indeterminate amount of time.
Now, onto the steps for deleting your Facebook account.
Before you permanently delete your account, keep a few things in mind. Per Facebook:
Note that Facebook provides a 30-day grace period once you delete your account. If you want to hop back onto the platform, you can simply reactivate your account during that period. All your info, data, and posts will be there. After those 30 days, you’ll no longer have access to them.
As for the steps, that varies. If you’re deleting Facebook from a computer:
If you’re deleting Facebook from an iOS device:
in the bottom right of Facebook.And from an Android device:
in the top right of Facebook.We suggest one more step in addition to the ones above.
Remove your info from the data broker sites that sell it.
Here’s why you might want to do that … Given the way social media companies share info with third parties, there’s a chance your personal info might have made it onto one or several data broker sites. These sites buy and sell extensive lists of personal to anyone, which ranges anywhere from advertisers to spammers and scammers.
If the thought of your personal info being bought and sold puts you off, there’s something you can do about it. Our Personal Data Cleanup service can scan some of the riskiest data broker sites and show you which ones are selling your personal info. It also provides guidance on how you can remove your data from those sites, and with select products, it can even manage the removal for you.
[i] https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy/?entry_point=data_policy_redirect&entry=0
[ii] https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/privacy/each-facebook-user-is-monitored-by-thousands-of-companies-a5824207467/
The post How to Delete Your Facebook Account appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Not long ago, the ability to digitally track someone’s daily movements just by knowing their home address, employer, or place of worship was considered a dangerous power that should remain only within the purview of nation states. But a new lawsuit in a likely constitutional battle over a New Jersey privacy law shows that anyone can now access this capability, thanks to a proliferation of commercial services that hoover up the digital exhaust emitted by widely-used mobile apps and websites.
Image: Shutterstock, Arthimides.
Delaware-based Atlas Data Privacy Corp. helps its users remove their personal information from the clutches of consumer data brokers, and from people-search services online. Backed by millions of dollars in litigation financing, Atlas so far this year has sued 151 consumer data brokers on behalf of a class that includes more than 20,000 New Jersey law enforcement officers who are signed up for Atlas services.
Atlas alleges all of these data brokers have ignored repeated warnings that they are violating Daniel’s Law, a New Jersey statute allowing law enforcement, government personnel, judges and their families to have their information completely removed from commercial data brokers. Daniel’s Law was passed in 2020 after the death of 20-year-old Daniel Anderl, who was killed in a violent attack targeting a federal judge — his mother.
Last week, Atlas invoked Daniel’s Law in a lawsuit (PDF) against Babel Street, a little-known technology company incorporated in Reston, Va. Babel Street’s core product allows customers to draw a digital polygon around nearly any location on a map of the world, and view a slightly dated (by a few days) time-lapse history of the mobile devices seen coming in and out of the specified area.
Babel Street’s LocateX platform also allows customers to track individual mobile users by their Mobile Advertising ID or MAID, a unique, alphanumeric identifier built into all Google Android and Apple mobile devices.
Babel Street can offer this tracking capability by consuming location data and other identifying information that is collected by many websites and broadcast to dozens and sometimes hundreds of ad networks that may wish to bid on showing their ad to a particular user.
This image, taken from a video recording Atlas made of its private investigator using Babel Street to show all of the unique mobile IDs seen over time at a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan. Each red dot represents one mobile device.
In an interview, Atlas said a private investigator they hired was offered a free trial of Babel Street, which the investigator was able to use to determine the home address and daily movements of mobile devices belonging to multiple New Jersey police officers whose families have already faced significant harassment and death threats.
Atlas said the investigator encountered Babel Street while testing hundreds of data broker tools and services to see if personal information on its users was being sold. They soon discovered Babel Street also bundles people-search services with its platform, to make it easier for customers to zero in on a specific device.
The investigator contacted Babel Street about possibly buying home addresses in certain areas of New Jersey. After listening to a sales pitch for Babel Street and expressing interest, the investigator was told Babel Street only offers their service to the government or to “contractors of the government.”
“The investigator (truthfully) mentioned that he was contemplating some government contract work in the future and was told by the Babel Street salesperson that ‘that’s good enough’ and that ‘they don’t actually check,’” Atlas shared in an email with reporters.
KrebsOnSecurity was one of five media outlets invited to review screen recordings that Atlas made while its investigator used a two-week trial version of Babel Street’s LocateX service. References and links to reporting by other publications, including 404 Media, Haaretz, NOTUS, and The New York Times, will appear throughout this story.
Collectively, these stories expose how the broad availability of mobile advertising data has created a market in which virtually anyone can build a sophisticated spying apparatus capable of tracking the daily movements of hundreds of millions of people globally.
The findings outlined in Atlas’s lawsuit against Babel Street also illustrate how mobile location data is set to massively complicate several hot-button issues, from the tracking of suspected illegal immigrants or women seeking abortions, to harassing public servants who are already in the crosshairs over baseless conspiracy theories and increasingly hostile political rhetoric against government employees.
Atlas says the Babel Street trial period allowed its investigator to find information about visitors to high-risk targets such as mosques, synagogues, courtrooms and abortion clinics. In one video, an Atlas investigator showed how they isolated mobile devices seen in a New Jersey courtroom parking lot that was reserved for jurors, and then tracked one likely juror’s phone to their home address over several days.
While the Atlas investigator had access to its trial account at Babel Street, they were able to successfully track devices belonging to several plaintiffs named or referenced in the lawsuit. They did so by drawing a digital polygon around the home address or workplace of each person in Babel Street’s platform, which focused exclusively on the devices that passed through those addresses each day.
Each red dot in this Babel Street map represents a unique mobile device that has been seen since April 2022 at a Jewish synagogue in Los Angeles, Calif. Image: Atlas Data Privacy Corp.
One unique feature of Babel Street is the ability to toggle a “night” mode, which makes it relatively easy to determine within a few meters where a target typically lays their head each night (because their phone is usually not far away).
Atlas plaintiffs Scott and Justyna Maloney are both veteran officers with the Rahway, NJ police department who live together with their two young children. In April 2023, Scott and Justyna became the target of intense harassment and death threats after Officer Justyna responded to a routine call about a man filming people outside of the Motor Vehicle Commission in Rahway.
The man filming the Motor Vehicle Commission that day is a social media personality who often solicits police contact and then records himself arguing about constitutional rights with the responding officers.
Officer Justyna’s interaction with the man was entirely peaceful, and the episode appeared to end without incident. But after a selectively edited video of that encounter went viral, their home address and unpublished phone numbers were posted online. When their tormentors figured out that Scott was also a cop (a sergeant), the couple began receiving dozens of threatening text messages, including specific death threats.
According to the Atlas lawsuit, one of the messages to Mr. Maloney demanded money, and warned that his family would “pay in blood” if he didn’t comply. Sgt. Maloney said he then received a video in which a masked individual pointed a rifle at the camera and told him that his family was “going to get [their] heads cut off.”
Maloney said a few weeks later, one of their neighbors saw two suspicious individuals in ski masks parked one block away from the home and alerted police. Atlas’s complaint says video surveillance from neighboring homes shows the masked individuals circling the Maloney’s home. The responding officers arrested two men, who were armed, for unlawful possession of a firearm.
According to Google Maps, Babel Street shares a corporate address with Google and the consumer credit reporting bureau TransUnion.
Atlas said their investigator was not able to conclusively find Scott Maloney’s iPhone in the Babel Street platform, but they did find Justyna’s. Babel Street had nearly 100,000 hits for her phone over several months, allowing Atlas to piece together an intimate picture of Justyna’s daily movements and meetings with others.
An Atlas investigator visited the Maloneys and inspected Justyna’s iPhone, and determined the only app that used her device’s location data was from the department store Macy’s.
In a written response to questions, Macy’s said its app includes an opt-in feature for geo-location, “which allows customers to receive an enhanced shopping experience based on their location.”
“We do not store any customer location information,” Macy’s wrote. “We share geo-location data with a limited number of partners who help us deliver this enhanced app experience. Furthermore, we have no connection with Babel Street” [link added for context].
Justyna’s experience highlights a stark reality about the broad availability of mobile location data: Even if the person you’re looking for isn’t directly identifiable in platforms like Babel Street, it is likely that at least some of that person’s family members are. In other words, it’s often trivial to infer the location of one device by successfully locating another.
The terms of service for Babel Street’s Locate X service state that the product “may not be used as the basis for any legal process in any country, including as the basis for a warrant, subpoena, or any other legal or administrative action.” But Scott Maloney said he’s convinced by their experience that not even law enforcement agencies should have access to this capability without a warrant.
“As a law enforcement officer, in order for me to track someone I need a judge to sign a warrant – and that’s for a criminal investigation after we’ve developed probable cause,” Mr. Maloney said in an interview. “Data brokers tracking me and my family just to sell that information for profit, without our consent, and even after we’ve explicitly asked them not to is deeply disturbing.”
Mr. Maloney’s law enforcement colleagues in other states may see things differently. In August, The Texas Observer reported that state police plan to spend more than $5 million on a contract for a controversial surveillance tool called Tangles from the tech firm PenLink. Tangles is an AI-based web platform that scrapes information from the open, deep and dark web, and it has a premier feature called WebLoc that can be used to geofence mobile devices.
The Associated Press reported last month that law enforcement agencies from suburban Southern California to rural North Carolina have been using an obscure cell phone tracking tool called Fog Reveal — at times without warrants — that gives them the ability to follow people’s movements going back many months.
It remains unclear precisely how Babel Street is obtaining the abundance of mobile location data made available to users of its platform. The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
But according to a document (PDF) obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology directorate, Babel Street re-hosts data from the commercial phone tracking firm Venntel.
On Monday, the Substack newsletter All-Source Intelligence unearthed documents indicating that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has opened an inquiry into Venntel and its parent company Gravy Analytics.
“Venntel has also been a data partner of the police surveillance contractor Fog Data Science, whose product has been described as ‘mass surveillance on a budget,'” All-Source’s Jack Poulson wrote. “Venntel was also reported to have been a primary data source of the controversial ‘Locate X’ phone tracking product of the American data fusion company Babel Street.”
The Mobile Advertising ID or MAID — the unique alphanumeric identifier assigned to each mobile device — was originally envisioned as a way to distinguish individual mobile customers without relying on personally identifiable information such as phone numbers or email addresses.
However, there is now a robust industry of marketing and advertising companies that specialize in assembling enormous lists of MAIDs that are “enriched” with historical and personal information about the individual behind each MAID.
One of many vendors that “enrich” MAID data with other identifying information, including name, address, email address and phone number.
Atlas said its investigator wanted to know whether they could find enriched MAID records on their New Jersey law enforcement customers, and soon found plenty of ad data brokers willing to sell it.
Some vendors offered only a handful of data fields, such as first and last name, MAID and email address. Other brokers sold far more detailed histories along with their MAID, including each subject’s social media profiles, precise GPS coordinates, and even likely consumer category.
How are advertisers and data brokers gaining access to so much information? Some sources of MAID data can be apps on your phone such as AccuWeather, GasBuddy, Grindr, and MyFitnessPal that collect your MAID and location and sell that to brokers.
A user’s MAID profile and location data also is commonly shared as a consequence of simply using a smartphone to visit a web page that features ads. In the few milliseconds before those ads load, the website will send a “bid request” to various ad exchanges, where advertisers can bid on the chance to place their ad in front of users who match the consumer profiles they’re seeking. A great deal of data can be included in a bid request, including the user’s precise location (the current open standard for bid requests is detailed here).
The trouble is that virtually anyone can access the “bidstream” data flowing through these so-called “realtime bidding” networks, because the information is simultaneously broadcast in the clear to hundreds of entities around the world.
The result is that there are a number of marketing companies that now enrich and broker access to this mobile location information. Earlier this year, the German news outlet netzpolitik.org purchased a bidstream data set containing more than 3.6 billion data points, and shared the information with the German daily BR24. They concluded that the data they obtained (through a free trial, no less) made it possible to establish movement profiles — some of them quite precise — of several million people across Germany.
A screenshot from the BR24/Netzpolitik story about their ability to track millions of Germans, including many employees of the German Federal Police and Interior Ministry.
Politico recently covered startling research from universities in New Hampshire, Kentucky and St. Louis that showed how the mobile advertising data they acquired allowed them to link visits from investigators with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to insiders selling stock before the investigations became public knowledge.
The researchers in that study said they didn’t attempt to use the same methods to track regulators from other agencies, but that virtually anyone could do it.
Justin Sherman, a distinguished fellow at Georgetown Law’s Center for Privacy and Technology, called the research a “shocking demonstration of what happens when companies can freely harvest Americans’ geolocation data and sell it for their chosen price.”
“Politicians should understand how they, their staff, and public servants are threatened by the sale of personal data—and constituent groups should realize that talk of data broker ‘controls’ or ‘best practices” is designed by companies to distract from the underlying problems and the comprehensive privacy and security solutions,” Sherman wrote for Lawfare this week.
The Orwellian nature of modern mobile advertising networks may soon have far-reaching implications for women’s reproductive rights, as more states move to outlaw abortion within their borders. The 2022 Dobbs decision by the U.S. Supreme Court discarded the federal right to abortion, and 14 states have since enacted strict abortion bans.
Anti-abortion groups are already using mobile advertising data to advance their cause. In May 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that an anti-abortion group in Wisconsin used precise geolocation data to direct ads to women it suspected of seeking abortions.
As it stands, there is little to stop anti-abortion groups from purchasing bidstream data (or renting access to a platform like Babel Street) and using it to geofence abortion clinics, potentially revealing all mobile devices transiting through these locations.
Atlas said its investigator geofenced an abortion clinic and was able to identify a likely employee at that clinic, following their daily route to and from that individual’s home address.
A still shot from a video Atlas shared of its use of Babel Street to identify and track an employee traveling each day between their home and the clinic.
Last year, Idaho became the first state to outlaw “abortion trafficking,” which the Idaho Capital Sun reports is defined as “recruiting, harboring or transporting a pregnant minor to get an abortion or abortion medication without parental permission.” Tennessee now has a similar law, and GOP lawmakers in five other states introduced abortion trafficking bills that failed to advance this year, the Sun reports.
Atlas said its investigator used Babel Street to identify and track a person traveling from their home in Alabama — where abortion is now illegal — to an abortion clinic just over the border in Tallahassee, Fla. — and back home again within a few hours. Abortion rights advocates and providers are currently suing Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, seeking to block him from prosecuting people who help patients travel out-of-state to end pregnancies.
Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit digital rights group, said she’s extremely concerned about dragnet surveillance of people crossing state lines in order to get abortions.
“Specifically, Republican officials from states that have outlawed abortion have made it clear that they are interested in targeting people who have gone to neighboring states in order to get abortions, and to make it more difficult for people who are seeking abortions to go to neighboring states,” Galperin said. “It’s not a great leap to imagine that states will do this.”
Atlas found that for the right price (typically $10-50k a year), brokers can provide access to tens of billions of data points covering large swaths of the US population and the rest of the world.
Based on the data sets Atlas acquired — many of which included older MAID records — they estimate they could locate roughly 80 percent of Android-based devices, and about 25 percent of Apple phones. Google refers to its MAID as the “Android Advertising ID,” (AAID) while Apple calls it the “Identifier for Advertisers” (IDFA).
What accounts for the disparity between the number of Android and Apple devices that can be found in mobile advertising data? In April 2021, Apple shipped version 14.5 of its iOS operating system, which introduced a technology called App Tracking Transparency (ATT) that requires apps to get affirmative consent before they can track users by their IDFA or any other identifier.
Apple’s introduction of ATT had a swift and profound impact on the advertising market: Less than a year later Facebook disclosed that the iPhone privacy feature would decrease the company’s 2022 revenues by about $10 billion.
Source: cnbc.com.
Google runs by far the world’s largest ad exchange, known as AdX. The U.S. Department of Justice, which has accused Google of building a monopoly over the technology that places ads on websites, estimates that Google’s ad exchange controls 47 percent of the U.S. market and 56 percent globally.
Google’s Android is also the dominant mobile operating system worldwide, with more than 72 percent of the market. In the U.S., however, iPhone users claim approximately 55 percent of the market, according to TechRepublic.
In response to requests for comment, Google said it does not send real time bidding requests to Babel Street, nor does it share precise location data in bid requests. The company added that its policies explicitly prohibit the sale of data from real-time bidding, or its use for any purpose other than advertising.
Google said its MAIDs are randomly generated and do not contain IP addresses, GPS coordinates, or any other location data, and that its ad systems do not share anyone’s precise location data.
“Android has clear controls for users to manage app access to device location, and reset or delete their advertising ID,” Google’s written statement reads. “If we learn that someone, whether an app developer, ad tech company or anyone else, is violating our policies, we take appropriate action. Beyond that, we support legislation and industry collaboration to address these types of data practices that negatively affect the entire mobile ecosystem, including all operating systems.”
In a written statement shared with reporters, Apple said Location Services is not on by default in its devices. Rather, users must enable Location Services and must give permission to each app or website to use location data. Users can turn Location Services off at any time, and can change whether apps have access to location at any time. The user’s choices include precise vs. approximate location, as well as a one-time grant of location access by the app.
“We believe that privacy is a fundamental human right, and build privacy protections into each of our products and services to put the user in control of their data,” an Apple spokesperson said. “We minimize personal data collection, and where possible, process data only on users’ devices.”
Zach Edwards is a senior threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm SilentPush who has studied the location data industry closely. Edwards said Google and Apple can’t keep pretending like the MAIDs being broadcast into the bidstream from hundreds of millions of American devices aren’t making most people trivially trackable.
“The privacy risks here will remain until Apple and Google permanently turn off their mobile advertising ID schemes and admit to the American public that this is the technology that has been supporting the global data broker ecosystem,” he said.
According to Bloomberg Law, between 2019 and 2023, threats against federal judges have more than doubled. Amid increasingly hostile political rhetoric and conspiracy theories against government officials, a growing number of states are seeking to pass their own versions of Daniel’s Law.
Last month, a retired West Virginia police officer filed a class action lawsuit against the people-search service Whitepages for listing their personal information in violation of a statute the state passed in 2021 that largely mirrors Daniel’s Law.
In May 2024, Maryland passed the Judge Andrew F. Wilkinson Judicial Security Act — named after a county circuit court judge who was murdered by an individual involved in a divorce proceeding over which he was presiding. The law allows current and former members of the Maryland judiciary to request their personal information not be made available to the public.
Under the Maryland law, personal information can include a home address; telephone number, email address; Social Security number or federal tax ID number; bank account or payment card number; a license plate or other unique vehicle identifier; a birth or marital record; a child’s name, school, or daycare; place of worship; place of employment for a spouse, child, or dependent.
The law firm Troutman Pepper writes that “so far in 2024, 37 states have begun considering or have adopted similar privacy-based legislation designed to protect members of the judiciary and, in some states, other government officials involved in law enforcement.”
Atlas alleges that in response to requests to have data on its New Jersey law enforcement clients scrubbed from consumer records sold by LexisNexis, the data broker retaliated by freezing the credit of approximately 18,500 people, and falsely reporting them as identity theft victims.
In addition, Atlas said LexisNexis started returning failure codes indicating they had no record of these individuals, resulting in denials when officers attempted to refinance loans or open new bank accounts.
The data broker industry has responded by having at least 70 of the Atlas lawsuits moved to federal court, and challenging the constitutionality of the New Jersey statute as overly broad and a violation of the First Amendment.
Attorneys for the data broker industry argued in their motion to dismiss that there is “no First Amendment doctrine that exempts a content-based restriction from strict scrutiny just because it has some nexus with a privacy interest.”
Atlas’s lawyers responded that data covered under Daniel’s Law — personal information of New Jersey law enforcement officers — is not free speech. Atlas notes that while defending against comparable lawsuits, the data broker industry has argued that home address and phone number data are not “communications.”
“Data brokers should not be allowed to argue that information like addresses are not ‘communications’ in one context, only to turn around and claim that addresses are protectable communications,” Atlas argued (PDF). “Nor can their change of course alter the reality that the data at issue is not speech.”
The judge overseeing the challenge is expected to rule on the motion to dismiss within the next few weeks. Regardless of the outcome, the decision is likely to be appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, media law experts say they’re concerned that enacting Daniel’s Law in other states could limit the ability of journalists to hold public officials accountable, and allow authorities to pursue criminal charges against media outlets that publish the same type of public and government records that fuel the people-search industry.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Congress’ failure to regulate data brokers, and the administration’s continued opposition to bipartisan legislation that would limit data sales to law enforcement, have created this current privacy crisis.
“Whether location data is being used to identify and expose closeted gay Americans, or to track people as they cross state lines to seek reproductive health care, data brokers are selling Americans’ deepest secrets and exposing them to serious harm, all for a few bucks,” Wyden said in a statement shared with KrebsOnSecurity, 404 Media, Haaretz, NOTUS, and The New York Times.
Sen. Wyden said Google also deserves blame for refusing to follow Apple’s lead by removing companies’ ability to track phones.
“Google’s insistence on uniquely tracking Android users – and allowing ad companies to do so as well – has created the technical foundations for the surveillance economy and the abuses stemming from it,” Wyden said.
Georgetown Law’s Justin Sherman said the data broker and mobile ad industries claim there are protections in place to anonymize mobile location data and restrict access to it, and that there are limits to the kinds of invasive inferences one can make from location data. The data broker industry also likes to tout the usefulness of mobile location data in fighting retail fraud, he said.
“All kinds of things can be inferred from this data, including people being targeted by abusers, or people with a particular health condition or religious belief,” Sherman said. “You can track jurors, law enforcement officers visiting the homes of suspects, or military intelligence people meeting with their contacts. The notion that the sale of all this data is preventing harm and fraud is hilarious in light of all the harm it causes enabling people to better target their cyber operations, or learning about people’s extramarital affairs and extorting public officials.”
Privacy experts say disabling or deleting your device’s MAID will have no effect on how your phone operates, except that you may begin to see far less targeted ads on that device.
Any Android apps with permission to use your location should appear when you navigate to the Settings app, Location, and then App Permissions. “Allowed all the time” is the most permissive setting, followed by “Allowed only while in use,” “Ask every time,” and “Not allowed.”
Android users can delete their ad ID permanently, by opening the Settings app and navigating to Privacy > Ads. Tap “Delete advertising ID,” then tap it again on the next page to confirm. According to the EFF, this will prevent any app on your phone from accessing the ad ID in the future. Google’s documentation on this is here.
Image: eff.org
By default, Apple’s iOS requires apps to ask permission before they can access your device’s IDFA. When you install a new app, it may ask for permission to track you. When prompted to do so by an app, select the “Ask App Not to Track” option. Apple users also can set the “Allow apps to request to track” switch to the “off” position, which will block apps from asking to track you.
Apple’s Privacy and Ad Tracking Settings.
Apple also has its own targeted advertising system which is separate from third-party tracking enabled by the IDFA. To disable it, go to Settings, Privacy, and Apple Advertising, and ensure that the “Personalized Ads” setting is set to “off.”
Finally, if you’re the type of reader who’s the default IT support person for a small group of family or friends (bless your heart), it would be a good idea to set their devices not to track them, and to disable any apps that may have location data sharing turned on 24/7.
There is a dual benefit to this altruism, which is clearly in the device owner’s best interests. Because while your device may not be directly trackable via advertising data, making sure they’re opted out of said tracking also can reduce the likelihood that you are trackable simply by being physically close to those who are.
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Thinking about deleting your TikTok account? We can show you how.
Before we get to that, you might be interested to find what kind of data TikTok collects about you — and how long TikTok keeps your account data, even after you delete it.
For that, we turn to TikTok’s privacy policy page.[i] TikTok collects data just like practically any other social media platform, and the list of what they collect runs long. You can see a full list in their privacy policy, yet here are a few things you might want to know about. Per TikTok:
So, TikTok knows the content you create, the content you appear in, and the messages you send (and the specific contents of those messages) — and potentially payment info and the people in your phone contacts. Additionally, it collects info on you from other sources and on any purchases you might have made through the platform.
The list continues. Once again, you can visit their privacy policy page for more details, yet here’s a partial rundown of other data they collect about you automatically. Per TikTok:
As for how long they keep all that data and info they collect, the answer is unclear. Per TikTok,
“We retain information for as long as necessary to provide the Platform and for the other purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We also retain information when necessary to comply with contractual and legal obligations, when we have a legitimate business interest to do so (such as improving and developing the Platform and enhancing its safety, security, and stability), and for the exercise or defense of legal claims.” [ii]
The key phrases here are “as long as necessary” and “when necessary.” TikTok doesn’t set a specific period in its policy. In fact, TikTok goes on to say that the periods vary based on “different criteria, such as the type of information and the purposes for which we use the information.”
Now, onto the steps for deleting your TikTok account.
Note that TikTok provides a 30-day grace period once you delete your account. If you want to hop back onto the platform, you can simply reactivate your account during that period. All your info, data, and posts will be there. After those 30 days, you’ll no longer have access to them.
We suggest one more step in addition to the ones above.
Here’s why you might want to do that … Given the way social media companies share info with third parties, there’s a chance your personal info might have made it onto one or several data broker sites. These sites buy and sell extensive lists of personal to anyone, which ranges anywhere from advertisers to spammers and scammers.
If the thought of your personal info being bought and sold puts you off, there’s something you can do about it. Our Personal Data Cleanup service can scan some of the riskiest data broker sites and show you which ones are selling your personal info. It also provides guidance on how you can remove your data from those sites, and with select products, it can even manage the removal for you.
[i] https://www.tiktok.com/legal/page/row/privacy-policy/en
[ii] https://www.tiktok.com/legal/page/row/privacy-policy/en
The post How to Delete Your TikTok Account appeared first on McAfee Blog.
If you think your Gmail account’s been hacked, you’ll want to act. And act quickly.
The fact is that your email has all manner of personal info in there. Receipts, tax correspondence, medical info, and so on. With a hacked account, that info might get deleted, shared, or used against you for identity theft.
Luckily, Google has mechanisms in place to restore a hacked Gmail account. We’ll walk through the steps here — and a few others that can keep you secure in the long term after you have your account back.
Several things can tip you off, including:
With varying degrees of certainty, those are some signs that your account has been hacked.
Also, many people have a Google Account linked with their Gmail password and login. Beyond email, that might include files in Google Drive, photos, a YouTube account, and other features that contain personal info. In those cases, that only increases the potential harm of a hacked account.
Additionally, services like Google Pay and Google Play complicate matters more in the event of a hacked account because they contain financial info.
If you see any unusual changes in those apps or services, that might be a sign of a hacked account as well.
If you think someone else has changed your password or deleted your account, head to Google’s account recovery page. It’ll take you through a multi-step process to restore your account.
With that, you’ll want to do some quick prep. First, do your best to begin the recovery process with a device that you typically use to access your account. Also, if possible, do it in a location where you typically access your account. This provides Google with identifiers that you are who you say you are.
After that, gather up your Gmail account passwords, old and current. The recovery page will ask for them, along with other questions. Do your best to answer each question the very best you can. There’s no penalty for a wrong answer and the more info you can provide, the better.
If you can log into your account, yet worry it’s been hacked, take these steps:
Next, run a virus scan on your device. Your password might have gotten compromised in one of several ways, including malware. This can remove any malware that might be spying on your device (and your passwords).
At this point, create a new password that’s strong and unique. Use at least 14 characters using a mix of upper- and lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers. Or have a password manager do that work for you.
And finally, set two-factor verification on your account if you aren’t already using it. This makes your account far tougher to hack, as two-factor verification requires a unique code to log in. One that only you receive. And just like with your password, never share your unique code. Anyone asking for it is a scammer.
By taking the steps we just covered, you’ve done two important things that can protect you moving forward. One is setting up a strong, unique password. The second is using two-factor verification.
The next thing is to get comprehensive online protection in place. Protection like you’ll find in our McAfee+ plans offers several features that can keep you and your accounts safe.
Once again, your password got compromised one way or another. It could have been spyware on your device. It could have been a phishing attack. It could have been a data breach. The list goes on. However, we refer to it as comprehensive online protection because it’s exactly that. In addition to antivirus, our McAfee+ plans have dozens of features that can protect your devices, identity, and privacy.
For example:
The important thing is this: if you think your Gmail account got hacked, act quickly. You might have much more than just your email linked to that account. Files, photos, and finances might be tied to it as well.
Even if something looks just slightly off, act as if your account got hacked. Log in, change your password, establish two-step verification if you haven’t, and take the other steps mentioned above. Above and beyond your email and all the personal info packed in there, your account can give a hacker access to plenty more.
The post How to Reset Your Gmail Password After Being Hacked appeared first on McAfee Blog.
You crack open your credit card statement and something seems … off. Maybe it’s a couple of small online purchases that make you think, “Hmm, that’s strange.” Or maybe a statement shows up in your mailbox — one for a card that you don’t own at all. That calls for a huge “What the heck???” Sure enough, you’re looking at cases of identity fraud and theft.
And there’s a difference between identity fraud and identity theft. It’s subtle. And because of that, they often get used interchangeably. Each one can really sting but in different ways.
So, put simply, identity fraud involves stealing from an existing account. Identity theft means that someone used your personal info to impersonate you in some way, such as opening new accounts in your name.
Each year, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) publishes a data book that collects consumer reports of fraud, identity theft, and other similar crimes. Using the most recent data from the FTC, we can plot what the top forms of identity theft and fraud look like.
Credit cards
By far the top form of identity theft and fraud. As mentioned in the examples above, these can include crooks who string out several small purchases over time. All in the hope that the cardholder will overlook it. It can also include a one-whopper of a purchase for a big-ticket item. Here, the crook knows the card will likely get canceled quickly afterward. It’s a one-and-done deal.
Loans and leases
Second, we have loans and leases. This can range from student loans, personal loans, and auto loans, and to real estate rentals as well. Common across them all is someone impersonating you to take them out or tap into their funds in some way.
Bank accounts
Here, the creation of totally new accounts leads the way in this category. As we described above, that’s a form of identity theft. Yet identity fraud accounts for a noticeable chuck, which includes account takeovers. In these cases, crooks siphon off funds via debit cards, Electronic Funds Transfer (ETF), and other forms of withdrawal and transfer.
ID and government benefits
This covers cases where crooks use stolen personal info to get IDs. That includes driver’s licenses, passports, and other government documentation. Further, this category also encompasses the theft of government-issued benefits ranging from medical assistance to veteran’s pay.
Tax returns
While all forms of identity theft and fraud can pack a punch, this type hits particularly hard because it involves your SSN. Around tax time, scammers with access to SSNs will file bogus returns, all with the aim of claiming the refund for themselves.
Utilities
Largely, this involves people buying cell phones and opening new mobile accounts along with them. Yet it also includes people opening other utilities in other people’s names. Indeed, crooks will scam their way into getting free electricity, water, gas, and yes…cable TV.
Although these forms don’t top the list in terms of reports, they still bear mentioning. They’re serious enough, and they can go undetected for some time before their victims find out.
Medical identity theft
In this form, an imposter receives care, medications, or medical devices in someone else’s name. They might pass off phony documentation to the care provider involved, the insurance company that pays for the care, or a combination of the two. A few things can happen as a result. It can impact the care you can get and the benefits you can use. In extreme cases, the thief’s health info can get mixed in with yours and impact your care. Medical identity theft is a good reason to closely review all the medical and insurance statements you get.
Child identity theft
Imagine your child about to rent a first apartment. The property management company runs a credit check, only to find a horrendous credit rating. But how? An identity thief has been using your child’s identity for years now. After all, what parent thinks, “I really should run a credit report on my kindergartener.” And that’s fair. However, signing up your child for identity is a sound move. It can help spot if your child’s identity got stolen.
1) Notify the companies and institutions involved and consider a credit freeze.
Whether you spot a curious charge on your bank statement or you discover what looks like a fraudulent account in your credit monitoring service, let the bank or business involved know you suspect fraud. With a visit to their website, you can track down the appropriate number to call and get the investigation process started.
In the meantime, consider putting a security freeze in place. A security freeze service prevents others from opening new credit, bank, and utility accounts in your name. It won’t hit your credit score, and you can unfreeze it when needed. You’ll find this feature in our McAfee+ plans as well.
2) File a police report.
Some businesses will require you to file a local police report to acquire a case number to complete your claim. Beyond that, filing a report is still a good idea. Identity theft is still theft, and reporting it provides an official record of it.
Should your case of identity theft lead to someone impersonating you or committing a crime in your name, filing a police report right away can help you clear your name down the road. Likewise, save any evidence you have, such as statements or documents associated with the theft. They can help you clean up your record as well.
3) Contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The FTC’s identity theft website is a fantastic resource should you find yourself in need. Above and beyond simply reporting the theft, the FTC can provide you with a step-by-step recovery plan—and even walk you through the process if you create an account with them. Additionally, reporting theft to the FTC can prove helpful if debtors come knocking to collect on any bogus charges in your name. You can provide them with a copy of your FTC report and ask them to stop.
4) Contact the IRS, if needed.
If you receive a notice from the IRS that someone used your identity to file a tax return in your name, follow the information provided by the IRS in the notice. From there, you can file an identity theft affidavit with the IRS. If the notice mentions that you were paid by an employer you don’t know, contact that employer as well and let them know of possible fraud — namely that someone has stolen your identity and that you don’t truly work for them.
Also, be aware that the IRS has specific guidelines as to how and when they will contact you. As a rule, they will most likely contact you via physical mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. (They won’t call, nor will they call and apply harassing pressure tactics — only scammers do that.) Identity-based tax scams are a topic all of their own, and for more on it, you can check out this article on tax scams and how to avoid them.
5) Continue to monitor your credit report, invoices, and statements.
Another downside of identity theft is that it can mark the start of a long, drawn-out affair. One instance of theft can possibly lead to another, so even what may appear to be an isolated bad charge on your credit card calls for keeping an eye on your identity. Many of the tools you would use up to this point still apply, such as checking up on your credit reports, maintaining fraud alerts as needed, in addition to reviewing your accounts closely.
Several features in our McAfee+ plans can do this work, and quite a bit more, for you:
The post What Are the 6 Types of Identity Theft appeared first on McAfee Blog.
The United States today unveiled sanctions and indictments against the alleged proprietor of Joker’s Stash, a now-defunct cybercrime store that peddled tens of millions of payment cards stolen in some of the largest data breaches of the past decade. The government also indicted and sanctioned a top Russian cybercriminal known as Taleon, whose cryptocurrency exchange Cryptex has evolved into one of Russia’s most active money laundering networks.
A 2016 screen shot of the Joker’s Stash homepage. The links have been redacted.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) today unsealed an indictment against a 38-year-old man from Novosibirsk, Russia for allegedly operating Joker’s Stash, an extremely successful carding shop that came online in late 2014. Joker’s sold cards stolen in a steady drip of breaches at U.S. retailers, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord and Taylor, Bebe Stores, Hilton Hotels, Jason’s Deli, Whole Foods, Chipotle, Wawa, Sonic Drive-In, the Hy-Vee supermarket chain, Buca Di Beppo, and Dickey’s BBQ.
The government believes the brains behind Joker’s Stash is Timur Kamilevich Shakhmametov, an individual who is listed in Russian incorporation documents as the owner of Arpa Plus, a Novosibirsk company that makes mobile games.
Early in his career (circa 2000) Shakhmametov was known as “v1pee” and was the founder of the Russian hacker group nerf[.]ru, which periodically published hacking tools and exploits for software vulnerabilities.
The Russian hacker group Nerf as described in a March 2006 article in the Russian hacker magazine xakep.ru.
By 2004, v1pee had adopted the moniker “Vega” on the exclusive Russian language hacking forum Mazafaka, where this user became one of the more reliable vendors of stolen payment cards.
In the years that followed, Vega would cement his reputation as a top carder on other forums, including Verified, DirectConnection, and Carder[.]pro.
Vega also became known as someone who had the inside track on “unlimited cashouts,” a globally coordinated cybercrime scheme in which crooks hack a bank or payment card processor and use cloned cards at cash machines to rapidly withdraw millions of dollars in just a few hours.
“Hi, there is work on d+p, unlimited,” Vega wrote in a private message to another user on Verified in Dec. 2012, referring to “dumps and PINs,” the slang term for stolen debit cards with the corresponding PINs that would allow ATM withdrawals.
This batch of some five million cards put up for sale Sept. 26, 2017 on the now-defunct carding site Joker’s Stash has been tied to a breach at Sonic Drive-In.
Joker’s Stash came online in the wake of several enormous card breaches at retailers like Target and Home Depot, and the resulting glut of inventory had depressed prices for stolen cards. But Joker’s would distinguish itself by catering to high-roller customers — essentially street gangs in the United States that would purchase thousands of stolen payment cards in one go.
Faced with a buyer’s market, Joker’s Stash set themselves apart by focusing on loyalty programs, frequent buyer discounts, money-back guarantees, and just plain good customer service. Big spenders were given access to the most freshly hacked payment cards, and were offered the ability to get free replacement cards if any turned out to be duds.
Joker’s Stash also was unique because it claimed to sell only payment cards that its own hackers had stolen directly from merchants. At the time, card shops typically resold payment cards that were stolen and supplied by many third-party hackers of unknown reliability or reputation.
In January 2021, Joker’s Stash announced it was closing up shop, after European authorities seized a number of servers for the fraud store, and its proprietor came down with the Coronavirus.
A DOJ statement credits the U.S. Secret Service for leading the years-long investigations (the Service’s original mandate was not protecting the president; it was pursuing counterfeiters, and modern-day carders definitely qualify as that). Prosecutors allege Joker’s Stash earned revenues of at least $280 million, but possibly more than $1 billion (the broad range is a consequence of several variables, including the rapid fluctuation in the price of bitcoin and the stolen goods they were peddling).
The proprietors of Joker’s Stash may have sold tens of millions of stolen payment cards, but Taleon is by far the bigger fish in this law enforcement action because his various cryptocurrency and cash exchanges have allegedly helped to move billions of dollars into and out of Russia over the past 20 years.
An indictment unsealed today names Taleon as Sergey Sergeevich Ivanov, 44, of Saint Petersburg, Russia. The government says Ivanov, who likely changed his surname from Omelnitskii at some point, laundered money for Joker’s Stash, among many other cybercrime stores.
In a statement today, the Treasury Department said Ivanov has laundered hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of virtual currency for ransomware actors, initial access brokers, darknet marketplace vendors, and other criminal actors for approximately the last 20 years.
First appearing on Mazafaka in the early 2000s, Taleon was known on the forums as someone who could reliably move large amounts of physical cash. Sources familiar with the investigation said Taleon’s service emerged as one of the few remaining domestic cash delivery services still operating after Russia invaded Ukraine in Feb. 2022.
Taleon set up his service to facilitate transfers between Moscow, St. Petersburg and financial institutions in the West. Taleon’s private messages on some hacker forums have been leaked over the years and indexed by the cyber intelligence platform Intel 471. Those messages indicate Taleon worked on many of the same ATM cashouts as Vegas, so it’s clear the two had an established business relationship well before Joker’s Stash came into being.
Sometime around 2013, Taleon launched a partnership with a money transfer business called pm2btc[.]me. PM2BTC allowed customers to convert funds from the virtual currency Perfect Money (PM) into bitcoin, and then have the balance (minus a processing fee) available on a physical debit card that could be used at ATMs, for shopping online, or at retail stores.
A screenshot of a website reviewing PM2BTC.
The U.S. government itself set things in motion for Taleon’s nascent cryptocurrency exchange business in 2013 after the DOJ levied money laundering charges against the proprietors of Liberty Reserve, one of the largest virtual currencies in operation at the time. Liberty Reserve was heavily used by cybercriminals of all stripes. The government said the service had more than a million users worldwide, and laundered in excess of $6 billion in suspected criminal proceeds.
In the days following the takedown of Liberty Reserve, KrebsOnSecurity ran a story that examined discussions across multiple top Russian cybercrime forums about where crooks could feel safe parking their stolen funds. The answer involved Bitcoin, but also Taleon’s new service.
Part of the appeal of Taleon’s exchange was that it gave its vetted customers an “application programming interface” or API that made it simple for dodgy online shops selling stolen goods and cybercrime services to accept cryptocurrency deposits from their customers, and to manage payouts to any suppliers and affiliates.
This API is synonymous with a service Taleon and friends operate in the background called UAPS, short for “Universal Anonymous Payment System.” UAPS has gone by several other names including “Pinpays,” and in October 2014 it landed Joker’s Stash as its first big client.
A source with knowledge of the investigation told KrebsOnSecurity that Taleon is a pilot who owns and flies around in his own helicopter.
Ivanov appears to have little to no social media presence, but the 40-year-old woman he lives with in St. Petersburg does, and she has a photo on her Vktontake page that shows the two of them in 2019 flying over Lake Ladoga, a large body of water directly north of St. Petersburg.
Sergey “Taleon” Ivanov (right) in 2019 in his helicopter with the woman he lives with, flying over a lake north of St. Petersburg, Russia.
In late 2015, a major competitor to Joker’s Stash emerged using UAPS for its back-end payments: BriansClub. BriansClub sullies this author’s name, photos and reputation to peddle millions of credit and debit cards stolen from merchants in the United States and around the world.
An ad for BriansClub has been using my name and likeness for years to peddle millions of stolen credit cards.
In 2019, someone hacked BriansClub and relieved the fraud shop of more than 26 million stolen payment cards — an estimated one-third of the 87 million payment card accounts that were on sale across all underground shops at that time. An anonymous source shared that card data with KrebsOnSecurity, which ultimately shared it with a consortium of financial institutions that issued most of the cards.
After that incident, the administrator of BriansClub changed the site’s login page so that it featured a copy of my phone bill, Social Security card, and a link to my full credit report [to this day, random cybercriminals confuse Yours Truly with the proprietor of BriansClub].
Alex Holden is founder of the Milwaukee-based cybersecurity firm Hold Security. Holden has long maintained visibility into cryptocurrency transactions made by BriansClub.
Holden said those records show BriansClub sells tens of thousands of dollars worth of stolen credit cards every day, and that in the last two years alone the BriansClub administrator has removed more than $242 million worth of cryptocurrency revenue from the UAPS platform.
The BriansClub login page, as it looked from late 2019 until recently.
Passive domain name system (DNS) records show that in its early days BriansClub shared a server in Lithuania along with just a handful of other domains, including secure.pinpays[.]com, the crime forum Verified, and a slew of carding shops operating under the banner Rescator.
As KrebsOnSecurity detailed in December 2023, the Rescator shops were directly involved in some of the largest payment card breaches of the past decade. Those include the 2013 breach at Target and the 2014 breach at Home Depot, intrusions that exposed more than 100 million payment card records.
In early 2018, Taleon and the proprietors of UAPS launched a cryptocurrency exchange called Cryptex[.]net that has emerged as a major mover of ill-gotten crypto coins.
Taleon reminds UAPS customers they will enjoy 0% commission and no “know your customer” (KYC) requirements “on our exchange Cryptex.”
Cryptex has been associated with quite a few ransomware transactions, including the largest known ransomware payment to date. In February 2024, a Fortune 50 ransomware victim paid a record $75 million ransom to a Russian cybercrime group that calls themselves the Dark Angels. A source with knowledge of the investigation said an analysis of that payment shows roughly half of it was processed through Cryptex.
That source provided a screen shot of Cryptex’s sending and receiving exposure as viewed by Chainalysis, a company the U.S. government and many cryptocurrency exchanges rely on to flag transactions associated with suspected money laundering, ransomware payouts, or facilitating payments for darknet websites.
Chainalysis finds that Cryptex has received more than $1.6 billion since its inception, and that this amount is roughly equal to its sending exposure (although the total number of outflows is nearly half of the inflows).
The graphic indicates a great deal of money flowing into Cryptex — roughly a quarter of it — is coming from bitcoin ATMs around the world. Experts say most of those ATM inflows to Cryptex are bitcoin ATM cash deposits from customers of carding websites like BriansClub and Jokers Stash.
A screenshot of Chainalysis’s summary of illicit activity on Cryptex since the exchange’s inception in 2018.
The indictments released today do not definitively connect Taleon to Cryptex. However, PM2BTC (which teamed up with Taleon to launch UAPS and Pinpays) and Cryptex have now been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) levied sanctions today against PM2BTC under a powerful new “Section 9714” authority included in the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act, changes enacted in 2022 to make it easier to target financial entities involved in laundering money for Russia.
Treasury first used this authority last year against Bitzlato, a cryptocurrency exchange operating in Russia that became a money laundering conduit for ransomware attackers and dark market dealers.
An investigation into the corporate entities behind UAPS and Cryptex reveals an organization incorporated in 2012 in Scotland called Orbest Investments LP. Records from the United Kingdom’s business registry show the owners of Orbest Investments are two entities: CS Proxy Solutions CY, and RM Everton Ltd.
Public business records further reveal that CS Proxy Solutions and RM Everton are co-owners of Progate Solutions, a holding company that featured prominently in a June 2017 report from Bellingcat and Transparency International (PDF) on money laundering networks tied to the Kremlin.
“Law enforcement agencies believe that the total amount laundered through this process could be as high as US$80 billion,” the joint report reads. “Although it is not clear where all of this money came from, investigators claim it includes significant amounts of money that were diverted from the Russian treasury and state contracts.”
Their story built on reporting published earlier that year by the Organized Crime and Corruption Project (OCCRP) and Novaya Gazeta, which found that at least US$20.8 billion was secretly moved out of Russia between 2010 and 2014 through a vast money laundering machine comprising over 5,000 legal entities known as “The Laundromat.”
Image: occrp.org
“Using company records, reporters tracked the names of some clients after executives refused to give them out,” the OCCRP report explains. “They found the heavy users of the scheme were rich and powerful Russians who had made their fortunes from dealing with the Russian state.”
Rich Sanders is a blockchain analyst and investigator who advises the law enforcement and intelligence community. Sanders just returned from a three-week sojourn through Ukraine, traveling with Ukrainian soldiers while mapping out dodgy Russian crypto exchanges that are laundering money for narcotics networks operating in the region. Sanders said today’s sanctions by the Treasury Department will likely have an immediate impact on Cryptex and its customers.
“Whenever an entity is sanctioned, the implications on-chain are immense,” Sanders told KrebsOnSecurity. “Regardless of whether an exchange is actually compliant or just virtue signals it, it is the case across the board that exchanges will pay attention to these sanctions.”
“This action shows these payment processors for illicit platforms will get attention eventually,” Sanders continued. “Even if it took way too long in this case, Cryptex knew the majority of their volume was problematic, knew why it was problematic, and did it anyway. And this should be a wake up call for other exchanges that know full well that most of their volume is problematic.”
The U.S. Department of State is offering a reward of up to $10 million each for information leading to the arrests and/or convictions of Shakhmametov and Ivanov. The State announcement says separate rewards of up to $1 million each are being offered for information leading to the identification of other leaders of the Joker’s Stash criminal marketplace (other than Shakhmametov), as well as the identification of other key leaders of the UAPS, PM2BTC, and PinPays transnational criminal groups (other than Ivanov).
Image: U.S. Secret Service.
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secator is a task and workflow runner used for security assessments. It supports dozens of well-known security tools and it is designed to improve productivity for pentesters and security researchers.
Curated list of commands
Unified input options
Unified output schema
CLI and library usage
Distributed options with Celery
Complexity from simple tasks to complex workflows
secator integrates the following tools:
| Name | Description | Category |
|---|---|---|
| httpx | Fast HTTP prober. | http |
| cariddi | Fast crawler and endpoint secrets / api keys / tokens matcher. | http/crawler |
| gau | Offline URL crawler (Alien Vault, The Wayback Machine, Common Crawl, URLScan). | http/crawler |
| gospider | Fast web spider written in Go. | http/crawler |
| katana | Next-generation crawling and spidering framework. | http/crawler |
| dirsearch | Web path discovery. | http/fuzzer |
| feroxbuster | Simple, fast, recursive content discovery tool written in Rust. | http/fuzzer |
| ffuf | Fast web fuzzer written in Go. | http/fuzzer |
| h8mail | Email OSINT and breach hunting tool. | osint |
| dnsx | Fast and multi-purpose DNS toolkit designed for running DNS queries. | recon/dns |
| dnsxbrute | Fast and multi-purpose DNS toolkit designed for running DNS queries (bruteforce mode). | recon/dns |
| subfinder | Fast subdomain finder. | recon/dns |
| fping | Find alive hosts on local networks. | recon/ip |
| mapcidr | Expand CIDR ranges into IPs. | recon/ip |
| naabu | Fast port discovery tool. | recon/port |
| maigret | Hunt for user accounts across many websites. | recon/user |
| gf | A wrapper around grep to avoid typing common patterns. | tagger |
| grype | A vulnerability scanner for container images and filesystems. | vuln/code |
| dalfox | Powerful XSS scanning tool and parameter analyzer. | vuln/http |
| msfconsole | CLI to access and work with the Metasploit Framework. | vuln/http |
| wpscan | WordPress Security Scanner | vuln/multi |
| nmap | Vulnerability scanner using NSE scripts. | vuln/multi |
| nuclei | Fast and customisable vulnerability scanner based on simple YAML based DSL. | vuln/multi |
| searchsploit | Exploit searcher. | exploit/search |
Feel free to request new tools to be added by opening an issue, but please check that the tool complies with our selection criterias before doing so. If it doesn't but you still want to integrate it into secator, you can plug it in (see the dev guide).
FreshRSS pipx install secator
pip install secator
wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/freelabz/secator/main/scripts/install.sh | sh
docker run -it --rm --net=host -v ~/.secator:/root/.secator freelabz/secator --help
alias secator="docker run -it --rm --net=host -v ~/.secator:/root/.secator freelabz/secator"
secator --help
git clone https://github.com/freelabz/secator
cd secator
docker-compose up -d
docker-compose exec secator secator --help
Note: If you chose the Bash, Docker or Docker Compose installation methods, you can skip the next sections and go straight to Usage.
secator uses external tools, so you might need to install languages used by those tools assuming they are not already installed on your system.
We provide utilities to install required languages if you don't manage them externally:
secator install langs go
secator install langs ruby
secator does not install any of the external tools it supports by default.
We provide utilities to install or update each supported tool which should work on all systems supporting apt:
secator install tools
secator install tools <TOOL_NAME>
secator install tools httpx
Please make sure you are using the latest available versions for each tool before you run secator or you might run into parsing / formatting issues.
secator comes installed with the minimum amount of dependencies.
There are several addons available for secator:
secator install addons worker
secator install addons google
secator install addons mongodb
secator install addons redis
secator install addons dev
secator install addons trace
secator install addons build
secator makes remote API calls to https://cve.circl.lu/ to get in-depth information about the CVEs it encounters. We provide a subcommand to download all known CVEs locally so that future lookups are made from disk instead:
secator install cves
To figure out which languages or tools are installed on your system (along with their version):
secator health
secator --help
Run a fuzzing task (ffuf):
secator x ffuf http://testphp.vulnweb.com/FUZZ
Run a url crawl workflow:
secator w url_crawl http://testphp.vulnweb.com
Run a host scan:
secator s host mydomain.com
and more... to list all tasks / workflows / scans that you can use:
secator x --help
secator w --help
secator s --help
To go deeper with secator, check out: * Our complete documentation * Our getting started tutorial video * Our Medium post * Follow us on social media: @freelabz on Twitter and @FreeLabz on YouTube
The Damn Vulnerable Drone is an intentionally vulnerable drone hacking simulator based on the popular ArduPilot/MAVLink architecture, providing a realistic environment for hands-on drone hacking.
The Damn Vulnerable Drone is a virtually simulated environment designed for offensive security professionals to safely learn and practice drone hacking techniques. It simulates real-world ArduPilot & MAVLink drone architectures and vulnerabilities, offering a hands-on experience in exploiting drone systems.
The Damn Vulnerable Drone aims to enhance offensive security skills within a controlled environment, making it an invaluable tool for intermediate-level security professionals, pentesters, and hacking enthusiasts.
Similar to how pilots utilize flight simulators for training, we can use the Damn Vulnerable Drone simulator to gain in-depth knowledge of real-world drone systems, understand their vulnerabilities, and learn effective methods to exploit them.
The Damn Vulnerable Drone platform is open-source and available at no cost and was specifically designed to address the substantial expenses often linked with drone hardware, hacking tools, and maintenance. Its cost-free nature allows users to immerse themselves in drone hacking without financial concerns. This accessibility makes the Damn Vulnerable Drone a crucial resource for those in the fields of information security and penetration testing, promoting the development of offensive cybersecurity skills in a safe environment.
The Damn Vulnerable Drone platform operates on the principle of Software-in-the-Loop (SITL), a simulation technique that allows users to run drone software as if it were executing on an actual drone, thereby replicating authentic drone behaviors and responses.
ArduPilot's SITL allows for the execution of the drone's firmware within a virtual environment, mimicking the behavior of a real drone without the need for physical hardware. This simulation is further enhanced with Gazebo, a dynamic 3D robotics simulator, which provides a realistic environment and physics engine for the drone to interact with. Together, ArduPilot's SITL and Gazebo lay the foundation for a sophisticated and authentic drone simulation experience.
While the current Damn Vulnerable Drone setup doesn't mirror every drone architecture or configuration, the integrated tactics, techniques and scenarios are broadly applicable across various drone systems, models and communication protocols.
All day long, it’s almost always within arm’s reach. Your smartphone. And we rely on it plenty. That makes securing your phone so important. Good thing that some of the best tips for making your phone safer are also some of the easiest.
Here’s a quick rundown:
1. Lock your phone.
Locking your phone is one of the most basic smartphone security measures you can take. Trouble is, few of us do it. Our recent global research showed that only 56% of adults said that they protect their smartphone with a password, passcode, or other form of lock.[i] In effect, an unlocked phone is an open book to anyone who finds or steals a phone.
Setting up a lock screen is easy. It’s a simple feature found on iOS and Android devices. iPhones and Androids have an auto-lock feature that locks your phone after a certain period of inactivity. Keep this time on the low end, one minute or less, to help prevent unauthorized access.
We suggest using a six-digit PIN or passcode rather than using a gesture to unlock your phone. They’re more complex and secure. Researchers proved as much with a little “shoulder surfing” test. They looked at how well one group of subjects could unlock a phone after observing the way another group of subjects unlocked it.[ii]
2. Turn on “Find My Phone.”
Another powerful tool you have at your disposal is the Find My Phone feature made possible thanks to GPS technology. The “find my” feature can help you pinpoint your phone if your lost or stolen phone has an active data or Wi-Fi connection and has its GPS location services enabled. Even if the phone gets powered down or loses connection, it can guide you to its last known location.
Setting up this feature is easy. Apple offers a comprehensive web page on how to enable and use their “Find My” feature for phones (and other devices too). Android users can get a step-by-step walkthrough on Google’s Android support page as well.
3. Learn how to remotely track, lock or erase your phone.
In the event of your phone getting lost or stolen, a combination of device tracking, device locking, and remote erasing can help protect your phone and the data on it.
Different device manufacturers have different ways of going about it. But the result is the same — you can prevent others from using your phone, and even erase it if you’re truly worried that it’s in the wrong hands or gone for good. Apple provides iOS users with a step-by-step guide, and Google offers up a guide for Android users as well.
4. Back up your stuff in the cloud.
Thanks to cloud storage, you might be able to recover your photos, files, apps, notes, contact info, and more if your phone is lost or stolen. Android owners can learn how to set up cloud backup with Google Drive here, and iPhone users can learn the same for iCloud here.
5. Update your phone’s operating system and apps.
Keep your phone’s operating system up to date. Updates can fix vulnerabilities that hackers rely on to pull off their malware-based attacks — it’s another tried-and-true method of keeping yourself safer and your phone running great too.
The same goes for the apps on your phone. Ideally, set them up to update automatically so that you don’t have to take extra time to do it yourself. Also, look for opportunities to delete old apps and any data linked with them. Fewer apps on your phone means fewer vulnerabilities. And less data in fewer places can reduce your exposure to data breaches.
6. Stick with official app stores.
Legitimate app stores like Google Play and Apple’s App Store have measures in place that help ensure that apps are safe and secure. And for the malicious apps that sneak past these processes, Google and Apple are quick to remove them once discovered, making their stores that much safer. Meanwhile, third-party app stores might not have these measures in place. Further, they might be a front for hackers looking to spread mobile malware through malicious apps.
7. Go with a strong app recommendation.
Yet better than combing through user reviews yourself is getting a recommendation from a trusted source, like a well-known publication or from app store editors themselves. In this case, much of the vetting work has been done for you by an established reviewer. A quick online search like “best fitness apps” or “best apps for travelers” should turn up articles from legitimate sites that can suggest good options and describe them in detail before you download.
That’s not to say that you should overlook user reviews. Certainly, legitimate reviews can be a big help. Look closely at the listing, though. Check out the developer’s track record. Have they published several other apps with many downloads and good reviews? A legit app typically has quite a few reviews, whereas malicious apps may have only a handful of (phony) five-star reviews. Lastly, look for typos and poor grammar in both the app description and screenshots. They could be a sign that a hacker slapped the app together and quickly deployed it.
8. Keep an eye on app permissions.
Another way hackers weasel their way into your device is by getting permissions to access things like your location, contacts, and photos — and they’ll use sketchy apps to do it. So check and see what permissions the app is requesting. If it’s asking for way more than you bargained for, like a simple game wanting access to your camera or microphone, it might be a scam.
Delete the app and find a legitimate one that doesn’t ask for invasive permissions. If you’re curious about permissions for apps that are already on your phone, iPhone users can learn how to allow or revoke app permission here, and Android can do the same here.
9. Spot scam texts and their bad links.
Scam texts seem like an unfortunate fact of life. Scammers can blast thousands of phones with texts that contain links to phishing sites and to others that host malware. Our Text Scam Detector puts a stop to scams before you click — detecting any suspicious links and sending you an alert. And if you accidentally tap that bad link, it can still block the site for you.
10. Protect your smartphone with security software.
With all that we do on our phones, it’s important to get security software installed on them, just like we install it on our computers and laptops. Whether you go with comprehensive online protection software that secures all your devices or pick up an app in Google Play or Apple’s App Store, you’ll have malware, web, and device security that’ll help you stay safe on your phone.
[i] https://www.mcafee.com/content/dam/consumer/en-us/docs/reports/rp-connected-family-study-2022-global.pdf
[ii] https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.04959
The post 10 Quick Tips for Mobile Security appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Tool for obfuscating PowerShell scripts written in Go. The main objective of this program is to obfuscate PowerShell code to make its analysis and detection more difficult. The script offers 5 levels of obfuscation, from basic obfuscation to script fragmentation. This allows users to tailor the obfuscation level to their specific needs.
./psobf -h
██████╗ ███████╗ ██████╗ ██████╗ ███████╗
██╔══██╗██╔════╝██╔═══██╗██╔══██╗██╔════╝
██████╔╝███████╗██║ ██║██████╔╝█████╗
██╔═══╝ ╚════██║██║ ██║██╔══██╗██╔══╝
██║ ███████║╚██████╔╝██████╔╝██║
╚═╝ ╚══════╝ ╚═════╝ ╚═════╝ ╚═╝
@TaurusOmar
v.1.0
Usage: ./obfuscator -i <inputFile> -o <outputFile> -level <1|2|3|4|5>
Options:
-i string
Name of the PowerShell script file.
-level int
Obfuscation level (1 to 5). (default 1)
-o string
Name of the output file for the obfuscated script. (default "obfuscated.ps1")
Obfuscation levels:
1: Basic obfuscation by splitting the script into individual characters.
2: Base64 encoding of the script.
3: Alternative Base64 encoding with a different PowerShell decoding method.
4: Compression and Base64 encoding of the script will be decoded and decompressed at runtime.
5: Fragmentation of the script into multiple parts and reconstruction at runtime.
go install github.com/TaurusOmar/psobf@latest
The obfuscation levels are divided into 5 options. First, you need to have a PowerShell file that you want to obfuscate. Let's assume you have a file named script.ps1 with the following content:
Write-Host "Hello, World!"
Run the script with level 1 obfuscation.
./obfuscator -i script.ps1 -o obfuscated_level1.ps1 -level 1
This will generate a file named obfuscated_level1.ps1 with the obfuscated content. The result will be a version of your script where each character is separated by commas and combined at runtime.
Result (level 1)
$obfuscated = $([char[]]("`W`,`r`,`i`,`t`,`e`,`-`,`H`,`o`,`s`,`t`,` `,`"`,`H`,`e`,`l`,`l`,`o`,`,` `,`W`,`o`,`r`,`l`,`d`,`!`,`"`") -join ''); Invoke-Expression $obfuscated
Run the script with level 2 obfuscation:
./obfuscator -i script.ps1 -o obfuscated_level2.ps1 -level 2
This will generate a file named obfuscated_level2.ps1 with the content encoded in base64. When executing this script, it will be decoded and run at runtime.
Result (level 2)
$obfuscated = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetString([System.Convert]::FromBase64String('V3JpdGUtSG9zdCAiSGVsbG8sIFdvcmxkISI=')); Invoke-Expression $obfuscated
Execute the script with level 3 obfuscation:
./obfuscator -i script.ps1 -o obfuscated_level3.ps1 -level 3
This level uses a slightly different form of base64 encoding and decoding in PowerShell, adding an additional layer of obfuscation.
Result (level 3)
$e = [System.Convert]::FromBase64String('V3JpdGUtSG9zdCAiSGVsbG8sIFdvcmxkISI='); $obfuscated = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetString($e); Invoke-Expression $obfuscated
Execute the script with level 4 obfuscation:
./obfuscator -i script.ps1 -o obfuscated_level4.ps1 -level 4
This level compresses the script before encoding it in base64, making analysis more complicated. The result will be decoded and decompressed at runtime.
Result (level 4)
$compressed = 'H4sIAAAAAAAAC+NIzcnJVyjPL8pJUQQAlRmFGwwAAAA='; $bytes = [System.Convert]::FromBase64String($compressed); $stream = New-Object IO.MemoryStream(, $bytes); $decompressed = New-Object IO.Compression.GzipStream($stream, [IO.Compression.CompressionMode]::Decompress); $reader = New-Object IO.StreamReader($decompressed); $obfuscated = $reader.ReadToEnd(); Invoke-Expression $obfuscated
Run the script with level 5 obfuscation:
./obfuscator -i script.ps1 -o obfuscated_level5.ps1 -level 5
This level fragments the script into multiple parts and reconstructs it at runtime.
Result (level 5)
$fragments = @(
'Write-',
'Output "',
'Hello,',
' Wo',
'rld!',
'"'
);
$script = $fragments -join '';
Invoke-Expression $script
This program is provided for educational and research purposes. It should not be used for malicious activities.
DockerSpy searches for images on Docker Hub and extracts sensitive information such as authentication secrets, private keys, and more.
Docker is an open-source platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of applications using containerization technology. Containers allow developers to package an application and its dependencies into a single, portable unit that can run consistently across various computing environments. Docker simplifies the development and deployment process by ensuring that applications run the same way regardless of where they are deployed.
Docker Hub is a cloud-based repository where developers can store, share, and distribute container images. It serves as the largest library of container images, providing access to both official images created by Docker and community-contributed images. Docker Hub enables developers to easily find, download, and deploy pre-built images, facilitating rapid application development and deployment.
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) on Docker Hub involves using publicly available information to gather insights and data from container images and repositories hosted on Docker Hub. This is particularly important for identifying exposed secrets for several reasons:
Security Audits: By analyzing Docker images, organizations can uncover exposed secrets such as API keys, authentication tokens, and private keys that might have been inadvertently included. This helps in mitigating potential security risks.
Incident Prevention: Proactively searching for exposed secrets in Docker images can prevent security breaches before they happen, protecting sensitive information and maintaining the integrity of applications.
Compliance: Ensuring that container images do not expose secrets is crucial for meeting regulatory and organizational security standards. OSINT helps verify that no sensitive information is unintentionally disclosed.
Vulnerability Assessment: Identifying exposed secrets as part of regular security assessments allows organizations to address these vulnerabilities promptly, reducing the risk of exploitation by malicious actors.
Enhanced Security Posture: Continuously monitoring Docker Hub for exposed secrets strengthens an organization's overall security posture, making it more resilient against potential threats.
Utilizing OSINT on Docker Hub to find exposed secrets enables organizations to enhance their security measures, prevent data breaches, and ensure the confidentiality of sensitive information within their containerized applications.
DockerSpy obtains information from Docker Hub and uses regular expressions to inspect the content for sensitive information, such as secrets.
To use DockerSpy, follow these steps:
git clone https://github.com/UndeadSec/DockerSpy.git && cd DockerSpy && make
dockerspy
To customize DockerSpy configurations, edit the following files: - Regular Expressions - Ignored File Extensions
DockerSpy is intended for educational and research purposes only. Users are responsible for ensuring that their use of this tool complies with applicable laws and regulations.
Contributions to DockerSpy are welcome! Feel free to submit issues, feature requests, or pull requests to help improve this tool.
DockerSpy is developed and maintained by Alisson Moretto (UndeadSec)
I'm a passionate cyber threat intelligence pro who loves sharing insights and crafting cybersecurity tools.
Consider following me:
Special thanks to @akaclandestine
Have you ever come across a website that just didn’t look quite right? Perhaps the company logo looked slightly misshapen, or the font seemed off-brand. Odds are, you landed on a phony version of a legitimate corporation’s website—a tried and true tactic relied on by many cyber criminals.
A fake login page is essentially a knock-off of a real login page used to trick people into entering their login credentials, which hackers can later use to break into online accounts. These websites mirror legitimate pages by using company logos, fonts, formatting, and overall templates. Depending on the attention to detail put in by the hackers behind the imposter website, it can be nearly impossible to distinguish from the real thing. Consequentially, fake login pages can be highly effective in their end goal: credential theft.
How do these pages get in front of a consumer in the first place? Typically, scammers will target unsuspecting recipients with phishing emails spoofing a trusted brand. These emails may state that the user needs to reset their password or entice them with a deal that sounds too good to be true. If the consumer clicks on the link in the email, they will be directed to the fake login page and asked to enter their username and password. Once they submit their information, cybercriminals can use the consumer’s data to conduct credential-stuffing attacks and hack their online profiles. This could lead to credit card fraud, data extraction, wire transfers, identity theft, and more.
If you Google “fake login pages,” you will quickly find countless guides on how to create fake websites in seconds. Ethical concerns aside, this demonstrates just how common vector-spoofed websites are for cyberattacks. While it has been easier to distinguish between real and fake login pages in the past, criminals are constantly updating their techniques to be more sophisticated, therefore making it more difficult for consumers to recognize their fraudulent schemes.
One reason why fake login pages are so effective is due to inattentional blindness, or failure to notice something that is completely visible because of a lack of attention. One of the most famous studies on inattentional blindness is the “invisible gorilla test.” In this study, participants watched a video of people dressed in black and white shirts passing basketballs. Participants were asked to count the number of times the team in white passed the ball:
Because participants were intently focused on counting the number of times the players in white passed the ball, more than 50% failed to notice the person in the gorilla costume walking through the game. If this is the first time you’ve seen this video, it’s likely that you didn’t notice the gorilla, the curtain changing color from red to gold, or the player in black leaving the game. Similarly, if you come across a well-forged login page and aren’t actively looking for signs of fraud, you could inherently miss a cybercriminal’s “invisible gorilla.” That’s why it’s crucial for even those with phishing training to practice caution when they come across a website asking them to take action or enter personal details.
The most important defense against steering clear of fake login pages is knowing how to recognize them. Follow these tips to help you decipher between a legitimate and a fake website:
Most fake login pages are circulated via phishing messages. If you receive a suspicious message that asks for personal details, there are a few ways to determine if it was sent by a phisher aiming to steal your identity. Phishers often send messages with a tone of urgency, and they try to inspire extreme emotions such as excitement or fear. If an unsolicited email urges you to “act fast!” slow down and evaluate the situation.
Oftentimes, hackers will use a URL for their spoofed website that is just one character off from the legitimate site, such as using “www.rbcr0yalbank.com” versus “www.rbcroyalbank.com.” Before clicking on any website from an email asking you to act, hover over the link with your cursor. This will allow you to preview the URL and identify any suspicious misspellings or grammatical errors before navigating to a potentially dangerous website.
HTTPS, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, is a protocol that encrypts your interaction with a website. Typically, websites that begin with HTTPS and feature a padlock in the top left corner are considered safer. However, cybercriminals have more recently developed malware toolkits that leverage HTTPS to hide malware from detection by various security defenses. If the website is secured with HTTPS, ensure that this isn’t the only way you’re analyzing the page for online safety.
Multi-factor authentication requires that users confirm a collection of things to verify their identity—usually something they have, and a factor unique to their physical being—such as a retina or fingerprint scan. This can prevent a cybercriminal from using credential-stuffing tactics (where they will use email and password combinations to hack into online profiles) to access your network or account if your login details were ever exposed during a data breach.
An identity theft alert service warns you about suspicious activity surrounding your personal information, allowing you to jump to action before irreparable damage is done. McAfee+ not only keeps your devices safe from viruses but gives you the added peace of mind that your identity is secure, as well.
The post How to Spot Fake Login Pages appeared first on McAfee Blog.
An old but persistent email scam known as “sextortion” has a new personalized touch: The missives, which claim that malware has captured webcam footage of recipients pleasuring themselves, now include a photo of the target’s home in a bid to make threats about publishing the videos more frightening and convincing.
This week, several readers reported receiving sextortion emails that addressed them by name and included images of their street or front yard that were apparently lifted from an online mapping application such as Google Maps.
The message purports to have been sent from a hacker who’s compromised your computer and used your webcam to record a video of you while you were watching porn. The missive threatens to release the video to all of your contacts unless you pay a Bitcoin ransom. In this case, the demand is just shy of $2,000, payable by scanning a QR code embedded in the email.
Following a salutation that includes the recipient’s full name, the start of the message reads, “Is visiting [recipient’s street address] a more convenient way to contact if you don’t take action. Nice location btw.” Below that is the photo of the recipient’s street address.
A semi-redacted screenshot of a newish sextortion scam that includes a photo of the target’s front yard.
The message tells people they have 24 hours to pay up, or else their embarrassing videos will be released to all of their contacts, friends and family members.
“Don’t even think about replying to this, it’s pointless,” the message concludes. “I don’t make mistakes, [recipient’s name]. If I notice that you’ve shared or discussed this email with someone else, your shitty video will instantly start getting sent to your contacts.”
The remaining sections of the two-page sextortion message (which arrives as a PDF attachment) are fairly formulaic and include thematic elements seen in most previous sextortion waves. Those include claims that the extortionist has installed malware on your computer (in this case the scammer claims the spyware is called “Pegasus,” and that they are watching everything you do on your machine).
Previous innovations in sextortion customization involved sending emails that included at least one password they had previously used at an account online that was tied to their email address.
Sextortion — even semi-automated scams like this one with no actual physical leverage to backstop the extortion demand — is a serious crime that can lead to devastating consequences for victims. Sextortion occurs when someone threatens to distribute your private and sensitive material if you don’t provide them with images of a sexual nature, sexual favors, or money.
According to the FBI, here are some things you can do to avoid becoming a victim:
-Never send compromising images of yourself to anyone, no matter who they are — or who they say they are.
-Don’t open attachments from people you don’t know, and be wary of opening attachments even from those you do know.
-Turn off [and/or cover] any web cameras when you are not using them.
The FBI says in many sextortion cases, the perpetrator is an adult pretending to be a teenager, and you are just one of the many victims being targeted by the same person. If you believe you’re a victim of sextortion, or know someone else who is, the FBI wants to hear from you: Contact your local FBI office (or toll-free at 1-800-CALL-FBI).
Malicious hackers are exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Versa Director, a software product used by many Internet and IT service providers. Researchers believe the activity is linked to Volt Typhoon, a Chinese cyber espionage group focused on infiltrating critical U.S. networks and laying the groundwork for the ability to disrupt communications between the United States and Asia during any future armed conflict with China.
Image: Shutterstock.com
Versa Director systems are primarily used by Internet service providers (ISPs), as well as managed service providers (MSPs) that cater to the IT needs of many small to mid-sized businesses simultaneously. In a security advisory published Aug. 26, Versa urged customers to deploy a patch for the vulnerability (CVE-2024-39717), which the company said is fixed in Versa Director 22.1.4 or later.
Versa said the weakness allows attackers to upload a file of their choosing to vulnerable systems. The advisory placed much of the blame on Versa customers who “failed to implement system hardening and firewall guidelines…leaving a management port exposed on the internet that provided the threat actors with initial access.”
Versa’s advisory doesn’t say how it learned of the zero-day flaw, but its vulnerability listing at mitre.org acknowledges “there are reports of others based on backbone telemetry observations of a 3rd party provider, however these are unconfirmed to date.”
Those third-party reports came in late June 2024 from Michael Horka, senior lead information security engineer at Black Lotus Labs, the security research arm of Lumen Technologies, which operates one of the global Internet’s largest backbones.
In an interview with KrebsOnSecurity, Horka said Black Lotus Labs identified a web-based backdoor on Versa Director systems belonging to four U.S. victims and one non-U.S. victim in the ISP and MSP sectors, with the earliest known exploit activity occurring at a U.S. ISP on June 12, 2024.
“This makes Versa Director a lucrative target for advanced persistent threat (APT) actors who would want to view or control network infrastructure at scale, or pivot into additional (or downstream) networks of interest,” Horka wrote in a blog post published today.
Black Lotus Labs said it assessed with “medium” confidence that Volt Typhoon was responsible for the compromises, noting the intrusions bear the hallmarks of the Chinese state-sponsored espionage group — including zero-day attacks targeting IT infrastructure providers, and Java-based backdoors that run in memory only.
In May 2023, the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint warning (PDF) about Volt Typhoon, also known as “Bronze Silhouette” and “Insidious Taurus,” which described how the group uses small office/home office (SOHO) network devices to hide their activity.
In early December 2023, Black Lotus Labs published its findings on “KV-botnet,” thousands of compromised SOHO routers that were chained together to form a covert data transfer network supporting various Chinese state-sponsored hacking groups, including Volt Typhoon.
In January 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice disclosed the FBI had executed a court-authorized takedown of the KV-botnet shortly before Black Lotus Labs released its December report.
In February 2024, CISA again joined the FBI and NSA in warning Volt Typhoon had compromised the IT environments of multiple critical infrastructure organizations — primarily in communications, energy, transportation systems, and water and wastewater sectors — in the continental and non-continental United States and its territories, including Guam.
“Volt Typhoon’s choice of targets and pattern of behavior is not consistent with traditional cyber espionage or intelligence gathering operations, and the U.S. authoring agencies assess with high confidence that Volt Typhoon actors are pre-positioning themselves on IT networks to enable lateral movement to OT [operational technology] assets to disrupt functions,” that alert warned.
In a speech at Vanderbilt University in April, FBI Director Christopher Wray said China is developing the “ability to physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing,” and that China’s plan is to “land blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic.”
Ryan English, an information security engineer at Lumen, said it’s disappointing his employer didn’t at least garner an honorable mention in Versa’s security advisory. But he said he’s glad there are now a lot fewer Versa systems exposed to this attack.
“Lumen has for the last nine weeks been very intimate with their leadership with the goal in mind of helping them mitigate this,” English said. “We’ve given them everything we could along the way, so it kind of sucks being referenced just as a third party.”
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Reports filed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) put the risks in perspective — scammers squarely target older adults. In 2023, adults aged 60 and up filed over one-third of all fraud reports. Their reported losses? Close to $2 billion.
While scammers target all age groups, older adults offer them a particular advantage. Technology and everyday internet use came along later in their lives. They didn’t grow up with it like the rest of us did, making them less familiar with technology and more susceptible to attack. Moreover, their lifetime savings, home ownership, and retirement accounts make them attractive targets.
That’s much the case with our grandparents today. It’s little wonder hackers, scammers, and thieves go after them.
Figures courtesy of the FTC
However, your grandparents have a big advantage working in their favor. You.
Your knowledge, your expertise, and your overall comfort level with technology and the internet can help them steer clear of fraud. Have a chat about staying safe online. Or have a few chats over time. The advice you pass up can make all the difference.
Here are a few ways you can start:
As the year rolls on, so do the scams. Every scam has its season, from tax scams early in the year to shopping scams during the holidays. Current events play in too. In the wake of natural disasters, phony relief scams make the rounds on the internet. Encourage your grandparents to keep an eye on the news for the latest online scams so they have a better chance of recognizing fraudulent activity. Or better yet, give them a call when you get word of a new data breach or scam.
The secret to beating cybercriminals at their own game is to think like one. Encourage your grandparents to consider what can make them targets. Perhaps they have large retirement funds. Maybe their online bank account is secured with a password that they use for multiple online accounts. Have them think about how they’ve made it easier for a crook to take advantage of them. From there, they can tighten up their security as needed. A tool like our Protection Score can do this for them. It stops weak points and offers solutions for shoring them up.
Each account should get its own strong, unique password. Which is a lot of work, given all the accounts we keep. A password manager can help. It creates and securely stores strong, unique passwords for every account. (No more sticky notes with passwords on the monitor.)
Also, help them set up two-factor authentication on their accounts that offer it. It provides an extra layer of security, as it requires multiple forms of verification, such as a fingerprint scan or facial recognition. This, with strong, unique passwords, makes accounts terrifically tough to crack.
Hackers, scammers, and thieves all use phishing attacks to rope in victims. And today, they look increasingly convincing thanks to AI tools. And as we’ve covered here on our blocks, scammers can easily clone voices — even faces—on calls and video chats. Plenty more phishing attacks come by text, email, and phone calls. This is where your grandparents need to get savvy.
If they receive an email that appears to be from a business or even a family member, but they are asking them for their Social Security Number, passwords, or money, stop and think. Don’t click on anything or take any direct action from the message. Instead, go straight to the organization’s website and verify that the message is legitimate with customer service. If the message claims to be from a family member asking for financial help, contact them directly to ensure it’s not a scammer in disguise. In all, make sure they show great caution any time a seemingly “urgent” email, message, or call comes their way. Urgency is often a sign of a scam.
Today’s online protection goes far beyond antivirus. It protects people. Their devices, their identity, and their privacy.
Comprehensive online protection like our McAfee+ plans keep them safe from hackers, scammers, and thieves in several ways. Consider this short list of what comprehensive online protection like ours can do for your grandparents:
Scam Protection
Is that email, text, or message packing a scam link? Our scam protection lets your grandparents know before they click that link. It uses AI to sniff out bad links. And if they click or tap on one, no worries. It blocks links to malicious sites.
Web protection
Like scam protection, our web protection sniffs out sketchy links while they browse. So say they stumble across a great-looking offer in a bed of search results. If it’s a link to a scam site, they’ll spot it. Also like scam protection, it blocks the site if they accidentally hit the link.
Transaction Monitoring
This helps them nip fraud in the bud. Based on the settings they provide, transaction monitoring keeps an eye out for unusual activity on credit and debit cards. That same monitoring can extend to retirement, investment, and loan accounts as well. It can further notify them if someone tries to change the contact info on their bank accounts or take out a short-term loan in their name.
Credit Monitoring
This is an important thing to do in today’s password- and digital-driven world. Credit monitoring uncovers any inconsistencies or outright instances of fraud in credit reports. Then it helps put your grandparents on the path to setting them straight. It further keeps an eye on their credit reports overall by providing you with notifications if anything changes in their history or score.
Personal Data Cleanup
This provides your grandparents with another powerful tool for protecting their privacy. Personal Data Cleanup removes their personal info from some of the sketchiest data broker sites out there. And they’ll sell those lines and lines of info about them to anyone. Hackers and spammers included. Personal Data Cleanup scans data broker sites and shows which ones are selling their personal info. From there, it provides guidance for removing your data from those sites. Further, when part of our McAfee+ Advanced and Ultimate, it sends requests to remove their data automatically.
Identity Theft Coverage & Restoration
Say the unfortunate happens to your grandparents and they fall victim to identity theft. Our coverage and restoration plan provides up to $2 million in lawyer fees and reimbursement for lawyer fees and stolen funds. Further, a licensed expert can help them repair their identity and credit. In all, this saves them money and their time if theft happens.
The post How to Talk to Your Grandparents About Staying Safe Online appeared first on McAfee Blog.
The proliferation of new top-level domains (TLDs) has exacerbated a well-known security weakness: Many organizations set up their internal Microsoft authentication systems years ago using domain names in TLDs that didn’t exist at the time. Meaning, they are continuously sending their Windows usernames and passwords to domain names they do not control and which are freely available for anyone to register. Here’s a look at one security researcher’s efforts to map and shrink the size of this insidious problem.
At issue is a well-known security and privacy threat called “namespace collision,” a situation where domain names intended to be used exclusively on an internal company network end up overlapping with domains that can resolve normally on the open Internet.
Windows computers on a private corporate network validate other things on that network using a Microsoft innovation called Active Directory, which is the umbrella term for a broad range of identity-related services in Windows environments. A core part of the way these things find each other involves a Windows feature called “DNS name devolution,” a kind of network shorthand that makes it easier to find other computers or servers without having to specify a full, legitimate domain name for those resources.
Consider the hypothetical private network internalnetwork.example.com: When an employee on this network wishes to access a shared drive called “drive1,” there’s no need to type “drive1.internalnetwork.example.com” into Windows Explorer; entering “\\drive1\” alone will suffice, and Windows takes care of the rest.
But problems can arise when an organization has built their Active Directory network on top of a domain they don’t own or control. While that may sound like a bonkers way to design a corporate authentication system, keep in mind that many organizations built their networks long before the introduction of hundreds of new top-level domains (TLDs), like .network, .inc, and .llc.
For example, a company in 2005 builds their Microsoft Active Directory service around the domain company.llc, perhaps reasoning that since .llc wasn’t even a routable TLD, the domain would simply fail to resolve if the organization’s Windows computers were ever used outside of its local network.
Alas, in 2018, the .llc TLD was born and began selling domains. From then on, anyone who registered company.llc would be able to passively intercept that organization’s Microsoft Windows credentials, or actively modify those connections in some way — such as redirecting them somewhere malicious.
Philippe Caturegli, founder of the security consultancy Seralys, is one of several researchers seeking to chart the size of the namespace collision problem. As a professional penetration tester, Caturegli has long exploited these collisions to attack specific targets that were paying to have their cyber defenses probed. But over the past year, Caturegli has been gradually mapping this vulnerability across the Internet by looking for clues that appear in self-signed security certificates (e.g. SSL/TLS certs).
Caturegli has been scanning the open Internet for self-signed certificates referencing domains in a variety of TLDs likely to appeal to businesses, including .ad, .associates, .center, .cloud, .consulting, .dev, .digital, .domains, .email, .global, .gmbh, .group, .holdings, .host, .inc, .institute, .international, .it, .llc, .ltd, .management, .ms, .name, .network, .security, .services, .site, .srl, .support, .systems, .tech, .university, .win and .zone, among others.
Seralys found certificates referencing more than 9,000 distinct domains across those TLDs. Their analysis determined many TLDs had far more exposed domains than others, and that about 20 percent of the domains they found ending .ad, .cloud and .group remain unregistered.
“The scale of the issue seems bigger than I initially anticipated,” Caturegli said in an interview with KrebsOnSecurity. “And while doing my research, I have also identified government entities (foreign and domestic), critical infrastructures, etc. that have such misconfigured assets.”
Some of the above-listed TLDs are not new and correspond to country-code TLDs, like .it for Italy, and .ad, the country-code TLD for the tiny nation of Andorra. Caturegli said many organizations no doubt viewed a domain ending in .ad as a convenient shorthand for an internal Active Directory setup, while being unaware or unworried that someone could actually register such a domain and intercept all of their Windows credentials and any unencrypted traffic.
When Caturegli discovered an encryption certificate being actively used for the domain memrtcc.ad, the domain was still available for registration. He then learned the .ad registry requires prospective customers to show a valid trademark for a domain before it can be registered.
Undeterred, Caturegli found a domain registrar that would sell him the domain for $160, and handle the trademark registration for another $500 (on subsequent .ad registrations, he located a company in Andorra that could process the trademark application for half that amount).
Caturegli said that immediately after setting up a DNS server for memrtcc.ad, he began receiving a flood of communications from hundreds of Microsoft Windows computers trying to authenticate to the domain. Each request contained a username and a hashed Windows password, and upon searching the usernames online Caturegli concluded they all belonged to police officers in Memphis, Tenn.
“It looks like all of the police cars there have a laptop in the cars, and they’re all attached to this memrtcc.ad domain that I now own,” Caturegli said, noting wryly that “memrtcc” stands for “Memphis Real-Time Crime Center.”
Caturegli said setting up an email server record for memrtcc.ad caused him to begin receiving automated messages from the police department’s IT help desk, including trouble tickets regarding the city’s Okta authentication system.
Mike Barlow, information security manager for the City of Memphis, confirmed the Memphis Police’s systems were sharing their Microsoft Windows credentials with the domain, and that the city was working with Caturegli to have the domain transferred to them.
“We are working with the Memphis Police Department to at least somewhat mitigate the issue in the meantime,” Barlow said.
Domain administrators have long been encouraged to use .local for internal domain names, because this TLD is reserved for use by local networks and cannot be routed over the open Internet. However, Caturegli said many organizations seem to have missed that memo and gotten things backwards — setting up their internal Active Directory structure around the perfectly routable domain local.ad.
Caturegli said he knows this because he “defensively” registered local.ad, which he said is currently used by multiple large organizations for Active Directory setups — including a European mobile phone provider, and the City of Newcastle in the United Kingdom.
Caturegli said he has now defensively registered a number of domains ending in .ad, such as internal.ad and schema.ad. But perhaps the most dangerous domain in his stable is wpad.ad. WPAD stands for Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol, which is an ancient, on-by-default feature built into every version of Microsoft Windows that was designed to make it simpler for Windows computers to automatically find and download any proxy settings required by the local network.
Trouble is, any organization that chose a .ad domain they don’t own for their Active Directory setup will have a whole bunch of Microsoft systems constantly trying to reach out to wpad.ad if those machines have proxy automated detection enabled.
Security researchers have been beating up on WPAD for more than two decades now, warning time and again how it can be abused for nefarious ends. At this year’s DEF CON security conference in Las Vegas, for example, a researcher showed what happened after they registered the domain wpad.dk: Immediately after switching on the domain, they received a flood of WPAD requests from Microsoft Windows systems in Denmark that had namespace collisions in their Active Directory environments.
Image: Defcon.org.
For his part, Caturegli set up a server on wpad.ad to resolve and record the Internet address of any Windows systems trying to reach Microsoft Sharepoint servers, and saw that over one week it received more than 140,000 hits from hosts around the world attempting to connect.
The fundamental problem with WPAD is the same with Active Directory: Both are technologies originally designed to be used in closed, static, trusted office environments, and neither was built with today’s mobile devices or workforce in mind.
Probably one big reason organizations with potential namespace collision problems don’t fix them is that rebuilding one’s Active Directory infrastructure around a new domain name can be incredibly disruptive, costly, and risky, while the potential threat is considered comparatively low.
But Caturegli said ransomware gangs and other cybercrime groups could siphon huge volumes of Microsoft Windows credentials from quite a few companies with just a small up-front investment.
“It’s an easy way to gain that initial access without even having to launch an actual attack,” he said. “You just wait for the misconfigured workstation to connect to you and send you their credentials.”
If we ever learn that cybercrime groups are using namespace collisions to launch ransomware attacks, nobody can say they weren’t warned. Mike O’Connor, an early domain name investor who registered a number of choice domains such as bar.com, place.com and television.com, warned loudly and often back in 2013 that then-pending plans to add more than 1,000 new TLDs would massively expand the number of namespace collisions.
Mr. O’Connor’s most famous domain is corp.com, because for several decades he watched in horror as hundreds of thousands of Microsoft PCs continuously blasted his domain with credentials from organizations that had set up their Active Directory environment around the domain corp.com.
It turned out that Microsoft had actually used corp.com as an example of how one might set up Active Directory in some editions of Windows NT. Worse, some of the traffic going to corp.com was coming from Microsoft’s internal networks, indicating some part of Microsoft’s own internal infrastructure was misconfigured. When O’Connor said he was ready to sell corp.com to the highest bidder in 2020, Microsoft agreed to buy the domain for an undisclosed amount.
“I kind of imagine this problem to be something like a town [that] knowingly built a water supply out of lead pipes, or vendors of those projects who knew but didn’t tell their customers,” O’Connor told KrebsOnSecurity. “This is not an inadvertent thing like Y2K where everybody was surprised by what happened. People knew and didn’t care.”
Phishing attacks have all kinds of lures. And many are so tried and true that it makes them easy to spot.
The target of a phishing attack is you. More specifically, your personal info and your money. Whether a scammer reaches out by email, with a text, or through a direct message, that’s what they’re after. And with a link, they whisk you off to a sketchy site designed to take them from you.
Just how much phishing is going on? To date, we’ve identified more than half a billion malicious sites out there. A number that grows daily. Because these attacks often succeed. One big reason why — they play on people’s emotions.
Phishing attacks always involve a form of “social engineering,” which is an academic way of saying that scammers use manipulation in their attacks. Commonly, scammers pretend to be a legitimate person or business.
You can get a better idea of how this works by learning about some of the most popular scams circulating today:
The CEO Scam
This scam appears as an email from a leader in your organization, asking for highly sensitive info like company accounts, employee salaries, and Social Security numbers. The hackers “spoof”, or fake, the boss’ email address so it looks like a legitimate internal company email. That’s what makes this scam so convincing — the lure is that you want to do your job and please your boss. But keep this scam in mind if you receive an email asking for confidential or highly sensitive info. Ask the apparent sender directly whether the request is real before acting.
The Urgent Email Attachment
Phishing emails that try to trick you into downloading a dangerous attachment that can infect your computer and steal your private info have been around for a long time. This is because they work. You’ve probably received emails asking you to download attachments confirming a package delivery, trip itinerary, or prize. They might urge you to “respond immediately!” The lure here is offering you something you want and invoking a sense of urgency to get you to click.
The “Lucky” Text or Email
How fortunate! You’ve won a free gift, an exclusive service, or a great deal on a trip to Las Vegas. Just remember, whatever “limited time offer” you’re being sold, it’s probably a phishing scam designed to get you to give up your credit card number or identity info. The lure here is something free or exciting at what appears to be little or no cost to you.
The Romance Scam
This one can happen completely online, over the phone, or in person after contact is established. But the romance scam always starts with someone supposedly looking for love. The scammer often puts a phony ad online or poses as a friend-of-a-friend on social media and contacts you directly. But what starts as the promise of love or partnership, often leads to requests for money or pricey gifts. The scammer will sometimes spin a hardship story, saying they need to borrow money to come visit you or pay their phone bill so they can stay in touch. The lure here is simple — love and acceptance.
While you can’t outright stop phishing attacks from making their way to your computer or phone, you can do several things to keep yourself from falling for them. Further, you can do other things that might make it more difficult for scammers to reach you.
The content and the tone of the message can tell you quite a lot. Threatening messages or ones that play on fear are often phishing attacks, such as angry messages from a so-called tax agent looking to collect back taxes. Other messages will lean heavily on urgency, like a phony overdue payment notice. And during the holidays, watch out for loud, overexcited messages about deep discounts on hard-to-find items. Instead of linking you to a proper e-commerce site, they might link you to a scam shopping site that does nothing but steal your money and the account info you used to pay them. In all, phishing attacks indeed smell fishy. Slow down and review that message with a critical eye. It might tip you off to a scam.
Some phishing attacks can look rather convincing. So much so that you’ll want to follow up on them, like if your bank reports irregular activity on your account or a bill appears to be past due. In these cases, don’t click on the link in the message. Go straight to the website of the business or organization in question and access your account from there. Likewise, if you have questions, you can always reach out to their customer service number or web page.
When scammers contact you via social media, that can be a tell-tale sign of a scam. Consider, would an income tax collector contact you over social media? The answer there is no. For example, in the U.S. the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) makes it clear that they will never contact taxpayers via social media. (Let alone send angry, threatening messages.) In all, legitimate businesses and organizations don’t use social media as a channel for official communications. They’ve accepted ways they will, and will not, contact you. If you have any doubts about a communication you received, contact the business or organization in question directly. Follow up with one of their customer service representatives.
Some phishing attacks involve attachments packed with malware, like ransomware, viruses, and keyloggers. If you receive a message with such an attachment, delete it. Even if you receive an email with an attachment from someone you know, follow up with that person. Particularly if you weren’t expecting an attachment from them. Scammers often hijack or spoof email accounts of everyday people to spread malware.
On computers and laptops, you can hover your cursor over links without clicking on them to see the web address. Take a close look at the addresses the message is using. If it’s an email, look at the email address. Maybe the address doesn’t match the company or organization at all. Or maybe it looks like it almost does, yet it adds a few letters or words to the name. This marks yet another sign that you might have a phishing attack on your hands. Scammers also use the common tactic of a link shortener, which creates links that almost look like strings of indecipherable text. These shortened links mask the true address, which might indeed be a link to a scam site. Delete the message. If possible, report it. Many social media platforms and messaging apps have built-in controls for reporting suspicious accounts and messages.
On social media and messaging platforms, stick to following, friending, and messaging people who you really know. As for those people who contact you out of the blue, be suspicious. Sad to say, they’re often scammers canvassing these platforms for victims. Better yet, where you can, set your profile to private, which makes it more difficult for scammers to select and stalk you for an attack.
How’d that scammer get your phone number or email address anyway? Chances are, they pulled that info off a data broker site. Data brokers buy, collect, and sell detailed personal info, which they compile from several public and private sources, such as local, state, and federal records, plus third parties like supermarket shopper’s cards and mobile apps that share and sell user data. Moreover, they’ll sell it to anyone who pays for it, including people who’ll use that info for scams. You can help reduce those scam texts and calls by removing your info from those sites. Our Personal Data Cleanup scans some of the riskiest data broker sites and shows you which ones are selling your personal info.
Online protection software can protect you in several ways. First, it can offer web protection features that can identify malicious links and downloads, which can help prevent clicking them. Further, features like our web protection can steer you away from dangerous websites and block malware and phishing sites if you accidentally click on a malicious link. Additionally, our Scam Protection feature warns you of sketchy links in emails, texts, and messages. And overall, strong virus and malware protection can further block any attacks on your devices. Be sure to protect your smartphones in addition to your computers and laptops as well, particularly given all the sensitive things we do on them, like banking, shopping, and booking rides and travel.
The post How to Spot Phishing Lures appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Tapping your phone at the cash register makes for a smooth trip to the store. Far smoother than fumbling for your card at the checkout or dealing with a bunch of change. That’s the beauty of the digital wallet on your phone. And with that convenience comes something plenty important — keeping that digital wallet secure.
All the personal info, photos, and banking apps we already have on our phones already make them plenty valuable. A digital wallet makes them that much more valuable.
A few steps can keep your phone and digital wallet more secure. Further, other steps can protect your cards and identity if that phone gets lost or stolen.
Let’s start with a look at how digital wallets work.
For starters, digital wallets work much like a physical wallet. Through service apps like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, PayPal, and others, you can store various payment types. That includes debit cards, credit cards, gift cards, and bank accounts.
The transaction is highly secure in general. When you use your digital wallet to make a purchase, the app creates a random ID for the transaction. It uses that ID rather than your actual account number to keep things secure. Encryption technology keeps things safer still by scrambling info during the process.
A digital wallet is safe, as long as you guard your smartphone just as closely as you would your physical wallet.
Here’s why you should secure your digital wallet and three tips to help you do so.
Fewer people use a lock screen than you might think. A finding from our global research showed that only 56% of adults said that they protect their smartphone with a password or passcode.[i] The problem with going unlocked is that if the phone gets lost or stolen, you’ve handed over a large part of your digital life to a thief. Setting up a lock screen is easy. It’s a simple feature found on iOS and Android devices.
Always protect your digital wallet with a lock, whether a unique passcode, fingerprint scan, or facial ID. This is the best and easiest way to deter cybercriminals. If you use a numerical code, make it different from the passcode on your phone. Also, make sure the numbers are random. Birthdays, anniversaries, house addresses, and the last digits of your phone number are all popular combinations and are crackable codes to a resourceful criminal.
Another way to secure your digital wallet is to make sure you always download the latest software updates. Developers are constantly finding and patching security holes, so the most up-to-date software is often the most secure. Turn on automatic updates to ensure you never miss a new release.
Before you swap your plastic cards for digital payment methods, ensure you research the digital banking app before downloading. Also, ensure that any app you download is through the official Apple or Android store or the financial institution’s official website. Then, check out how many downloads and reviews the app has. That’s one way you can make sure you’re downloading an official app and not an imposter. While most of the apps on official stores are legitimate, it’s always smart to check for typos, blurry logos, and unprofessional app descriptions.
So what happens if your phone ends up getting lost or stolen? A combination of device tracking, device locking, and remote erasing can help protect your phone and the data on it. Different device manufacturers have different ways of going about it, but the result is the same — you can prevent others from using your phone. You can even erase it if you’re truly worried that it’s in the wrong hands or if it’s gone for good. Apple provides iOS users with a step-by-step guide, and Google offers up a guide for Android users as well.
No doubt about it. Our phones get more and more valuable as the years go by. With an increasing amount of our financial lives coursing through them, protecting our phones becomes that much more important.
Comprehensive online protection like our McAfee+ plans can protect your phone. And it can protect something else. You. Namely, your privacy and your identity. Here’s a quick rundown: It can …
Protection like this is worth looking into, particularly as our phones become yet more valuable still thanks to digital wallets and payment apps like them.
[i] https://www.mcafee.com/content/dam/consumer/en-us/docs/reports/rp-connected-family-study-2022-global.pdf
The post How to Secure Your Digital Wallet appeared first on McAfee Blog.
How do you recognize phishing emails and texts? Even as many of the scammers behind them have sophisticated their attacks, you can still pick out telltale signs.
Common to them all, every phishing is a cybercrime that aims to steal your sensitive info. Personal info. Financial info. Other attacks go right for your wallet by selling bogus goods or pushing phony charities.
You’ll find scammers posing as major corporations, friends, business associates, and more. They might try to trick you into providing info like website logins, credit and debit card numbers, and even precious personal info like your Social Security Number.
Phishing scammers often undo their own plans by making simple mistakes that are easy to spot once you know how to recognize them. Check for the following signs of phishing when you open an email or check a text:
It’s poorly written.
Even the biggest companies sometimes make minor errors in their communications. Phishing messages often contain grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and other blatant errors that major corporations wouldn’t make. If you see glaring grammatical errors in an email or text that asks for your personal info, you might be the target of a phishing scam.
The logo doesn’t look right.
Phishing scammers often steal the logos of the businesses they impersonate. However, they don’t always use them correctly. The logo in a phishing email or text might have the wrong aspect ratio or low resolution. If you have to squint to make out the logo in a message, the chances are that it’s phishing.
The URL doesn’t match.
Phishing always centers around links that you’re supposed to click or tap. Here are a few ways to check whether a link someone sent you is legitimate:
You can also spot a phishing attack when you know what some of the most popular scams are:
The CEO Scam
This scam appears as an email from a leader in your organization, asking for highly sensitive info like company accounts, employee salaries, and Social Security numbers. The hackers “spoof”, or fake, the boss’ email address so it looks like a legitimate internal company email. That’s what makes this scam so convincing — the lure is that you want to do your job and please your boss. But keep this scam in mind if you receive an email asking for confidential or highly sensitive info. Ask the apparent sender directly whether the request is real before acting.
The Urgent Email Attachment
Phishing emails that try to trick you into downloading a dangerous attachment that can infect your computer and steal your private info have been around for a long time. This is because they work. You’ve probably received emails asking you to download attachments confirming a package delivery, trip itinerary, or prize. They might urge you to “respond immediately!” The lure here is offering you something you want and invoking a sense of urgency to get you to click.
The “Lucky” Text or Email
How fortunate! You’ve won a free gift, an exclusive service, or a great deal on a trip to Las Vegas. Just remember, whatever “limited time offer” you’re being sold, it’s probably a phishing scam designed to get you to give up your credit card number or identity info. The lure here is something free or exciting at what appears to be little or no cost to you.
The Romance Scam
This one can happen completely online, over the phone, or in person after contact is established. But the romance scam always starts with someone supposedly looking for love. The scammer often puts a phony ad online or poses as a friend-of-a-friend on social media and contacts you directly. But what starts as the promise of love or partnership, often leads to requests for money or pricey gifts. The scammer will sometimes spin a hardship story, saying they need to borrow money to come visit you or pay their phone bill so they can stay in touch. The lure here is simple — love and acceptance.
Account Suspended Scam
Some phishing emails appear to notify you that your bank temporarily suspended your account due to unusual activity. If you receive an account suspension email from a bank that you haven’t opened an account with, delete it immediately, and don’t look back. Suspended account phishing emails from banks you do business with, however, are harder to spot. Use the methods we listed above to check the email’s integrity, and if all else fails, contact your bank directly instead of opening any links within the email you received.
While you can’t outright stop phishing attacks from making their way to your computer or phone, you can do several things to keep yourself from falling for them. Further, you can do other things that might make it more difficult for scammers to reach you.
The content and the tone of the message can tell you quite a lot. Threatening messages or ones that play on fear are often phishing attacks, such as angry messages from a so-called tax agent looking to collect back taxes. Other messages will lean heavily on urgency, like a phony overdue payment notice. And during the holidays, watch out for loud, overexcited messages about deep discounts on hard-to-find items. Instead of linking you off to a proper e-commerce site, they might link you to a scam shopping site that does nothing but steal your money and the account info you used to pay them. In all, phishing attacks indeed smell fishy. Slow down and review that message with a critical eye. It might tip you off to a scam.
Some phishing attacks can look rather convincing. So much so that you’ll want to follow up on them, like if your bank reports irregular activity on your account or a bill appears to be past due. In these cases, don’t click on the link in the message. Go straight to the website of the business or organization in question and access your account from there. Likewise, if you have questions, you can always reach out to their customer service number or web page.
Some phishing attacks occur in social media messengers. When you get direct messages, consider the source. Consider, would an income tax collector contact you over social media? The answer there is no. For example, in the U.S. the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) makes it clear that they will never contact taxpayers via social media. (Let alone send angry, threatening messages.) In all, legitimate businesses and organizations don’t use social media as a channel for official communications. They’ve accepted ways they will, and will not, contact you. If you have any doubts about a communication you received, contact the business or organization in question directly. Follow up with one of their customer service representatives.
Some phishing attacks involve attachments packed with malware, like ransomware, viruses, and keyloggers. If you receive a message with such an attachment, delete it. Even if you receive an email with an attachment from someone you know, follow up with that person. Particularly if you weren’t expecting an attachment from them. Scammers often hijack or spoof email accounts of everyday people to spread malware.
How’d that scammer get your phone number or email address anyway? Chances are, they pulled that info off a data broker site. Data brokers buy, collect, and sell detailed personal info, which they compile from several public and private sources, such as local, state, and federal records, plus third parties like supermarket shopper’s cards and mobile apps that share and sell user data. Moreover, they’ll sell it to anyone who pays for it, including people who’ll use that info for scams. You can help reduce those scam texts and calls by removing your info from those sites. Our Personal Data Cleanup scans some of the riskiest data broker sites and shows you which ones are selling your personal info.
Online protection software can protect you in several ways. First, it can offer web protection features that can identify malicious links and downloads, which can help prevent clicking them. Further, features like our web protection can steer you away from dangerous websites and block malware and phishing sites if you accidentally click on a malicious link. Additionally, our Scam Protection feature warns you of sketchy links in emails, texts, and messages. And overall, strong virus and malware protection can further block any attacks on your devices. Be sure to protect your smartphones in addition to your computers and laptops as well, particularly given all the sensitive things we do on them, like banking, shopping, and booking rides and travel.
The post How to Recognize a Phishing Email appeared first on McAfee Blog.
New details are emerging about a breach at National Public Data (NPD), a consumer data broker that recently spilled hundreds of millions of Americans’ Social Security Numbers, addresses, and phone numbers online. KrebsOnSecurity has learned that another NPD data broker which shares access to the same consumer records inadvertently published the passwords to its back-end database in a file that was freely available from its homepage until today.
In April, a cybercriminal named USDoD began selling data stolen from NPD. In July, someone leaked what was taken, including the names, addresses, phone numbers and in some cases email addresses for more than 272 million people (including many who are now deceased).
NPD acknowledged the intrusion on Aug. 12, saying it dates back to a security incident in December 2023. In an interview last week, USDoD blamed the July data leak on another malicious hacker who also had access to the company’s database, which they claimed has been floating around the underground since December 2023.
Following last week’s story on the breadth of the NPD breach, a reader alerted KrebsOnSecurity that a sister NPD property — the background search service recordscheck.net — was hosting an archive that included the usernames and password for the site’s administrator.
A review of that archive, which was available from the Records Check website until just before publication this morning (August 19), shows it includes the source code and plain text usernames and passwords for different components of recordscheck.net, which is visually similar to nationalpublicdata.com and features identical login pages.
The exposed archive, which was named “members.zip,” indicates RecordsCheck users were all initially assigned the same six-character password and instructed to change it, but many did not.
According to the breach tracking service Constella Intelligence, the passwords included in the source code archive are identical to credentials exposed in previous data breaches that involved email accounts belonging to NPD’s founder, an actor and retired sheriff’s deputy from Florida named Salvatore “Sal” Verini.
Reached via email, Mr. Verini said the exposed archive (a .zip file) containing recordscheck.net credentials has been removed from the company’s website, and that the site is slated to cease operations “in the next week or so.”
“Regarding the zip, it has been removed but was an old version of the site with non-working code and passwords,” Verini told KrebsOnSecurity. “Regarding your question, it is an active investigation, in which we cannot comment on at this point. But once we can, we will [be] with you, as we follow your blog. Very informative.”
The leaked recordscheck.net source code indicates the website was created by a web development firm based in Lahore, Pakistan called creationnext.com, which did not return messages seeking comment. CreationNext.com’s homepage features a positive testimonial from Sal Verini.
A testimonial from Sal Verini on the homepage of CreationNext, the Lahore, Pakistan-based web development firm that apparently designed NPD and RecordsCheck.
There are now several websites that have been stood up to help people learn if their SSN and other data was exposed in this breach. One is npdbreach.com, a lookup page erected by Atlas Data Privacy Corp. Another lookup service is available at npd.pentester.com. Both sites show NPD had old and largely inaccurate data on Yours Truly.
The best advice for those concerned about this breach is to freeze one’s credit file at each of the major consumer reporting bureaus. Having a freeze on your files makes it much harder for identity thieves to create new accounts in your name, and it limits who can view your credit information.
A freeze is a good idea because all of the information that ID thieves need to assume your identity is now broadly available from multiple sources, thanks to the multiplicity of data breaches we’ve seen involving SSN data and other key static data points about people.
Screenshots of a Telegram-based ID theft service that was selling background reports using hacked law enforcement accounts at USInfoSearch.
There are numerous cybercriminal services that offer detailed background checks on consumers, including full SSNs. These services are powered by compromised accounts at data brokers that cater to private investigators and law enforcement officials, and some are now fully automated via Telegram instant message bots.
In November 2023, KrebsOnSecurity wrote about one such service, which was being powered by hacked accounts at the U.S. consumer data broker USInfoSearch.com. This is notable because the leaked source code indicates Records Check pulled background reports on people by querying NPD’s database and records at USInfoSearch. KrebsOnSecurity sought comment from USInfoSearch and will update this story if they respond.
The point is, if you’re an American who hasn’t frozen their credit files and you haven’t yet experienced some form of new account fraud, the ID thieves probably just haven’t gotten around to you yet.
All Americans are also entitled to obtain a free copy of their credit report weekly from each of the three major credit bureaus. It used to be that consumers were allowed one free report from each of the bureaus annually, but in October 2023 the Federal Trade Commission announced the bureaus had permanently extended a program that lets you check your credit report once a week for free.
If you haven’t done this in a while, now would be an excellent time to order your files. To place a freeze, you’ll need to create an account at each of the three major reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Once you’ve established an account, you should be able to then view and freeze your credit file. If you spot errors, such as random addresses and phone numbers you don’t recognize, do not ignore them. Dispute any inaccuracies you may find.
