Tag: Cybersecurity
$1bn Korean bust is tip of SE Asian cybercrime iceberg
Authorities in Korea and Beijing dismantled a sprawling voice phishing syndicate responsible for financial losses totaling US$ 1.1 billion. But South-East Asian observers believe this to be only the tip of an impenetrable iceberg of cybercrime in South-East Asia that is rapidly starting spread around the globe. The Korean bust was part of an Interpol-co-ordinated global operation involving law enforcement from 40 countries, territories, and regions and has ended with the arrest of over 5,500 financial crime suspects and the seizure of more than US$400 million in virtual assets and government-backed currencies.
China’s Telecom Hack ‘Most Serious’ in US History
US Senator Mark Warner has called the Salt Typhoon hack, conducted by a group that has been linked to Chinese intelligence, “the most serious telecoms hack in our history.” In a recent interview with the NY Times, Warner also said that hackers were able to listen in on telephone calls and access text messages, emphasizing that “every major provider has been broken into.” This follows hard on the FBI releasing a joint statement with the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in which they announced that “China-affiliated actors have compromised networks at multiple telecommunications companies.”
Scammers circling Black Friday shoppers
Scammers have stolen £11.4 billion from UK citizens over the last 12 months. According to the Global Anti-Scam Alliance’s (GASA) latest report, The State of Scams in the UK, conducted in association with the UK’s leading fraud prevention service, Cifas, this represents an increase of £4 billion over the previous year. With the Black Friday sales bonanza looming on both sides of the Atlantic, the findings come as a timely warning to online shoppers. GASA and Cifas anticipate a further spike in scam attempts this week and re-urging consumers to remain vigilant. The warning comes as 1 in 7 (15 percent) consumers surveyed said they lost cash to criminals in 2024, an increase from 10 percent in 2023. The average loss per victim was £1,400, and only 18 percent of victims recovered all their money.
Women break glass ceiling of Russian cybercrime
Women cybercriminals and lady Darknet hackers are now starting to make inroads into the hitherto male-dominated fraternities of Russian-speaking cybercrime. According to the cybersecurity training and certification cooperative, the SANS Institute, women cybercriminals sometimes now pose as men in order to obfuscate their identities as well as to gain credibility among Russian-speaking criminals. The SANS Institute interviewed one such woman cybercriminal, who is referred to only as a "Confidential Human Source (CHS)" in order to comply with her request for anonymity. “I often took my boyfriend to in-person meetings,” CHS revealed, shining a new light on a so-far largely unrecognized aspect of cybercrime, the fact that cybercriminals meetings are frequently also conducted offline.
US water supply threatened by cyber-attacks
The USA’s drinking water is under threat. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 97 drinking water systems serving around 27 million users have critical or high-risk cybersecurity. Although the EPA’s latest report focuses on the potential financial costs of cyber-attacks, there is also strong evidence that such attacks could also result in significant loss of life, with thousands or even millions of people being deliberately poisoned by terrorists or a hostile foreign power. “We estimate that a [California] state-wide water service disruption could potentially cost at least $61 billion in lost revenue per day,” says the EPA report, Cybersecurity Concerns Related to Drinking Water Systems.
Cryptocurrency Laundering Top Dog Arrested
Russian-Swedish native Roman Sterlingov has been sentenced to twelve years in prison for his alleged involvement in Bitcoin Fog, the longest-running cryptocurrency laundering service on the dark web. Sterlingov reportedly operated Bitcoin Fog for a decade and processed over 1.2 million Bitcoin, valued at approximately $400 million at the time of the transactions. Bitcoin Fog ran from 2011-2021 and quickly garnered a reputation among the dark web community as the “go-to” cryptocurrency “mixer” for cybercriminals looking to hide their illicit funds from law enforcement. Bitcoin Fog would pool the “dirty” cryptocurrency and redistribute it in order to make the funds untraceable. According to court documents, the cryptocurrency laundered was mainly derived from darknet marketplaces tied to illegal narcotics, identity theft, and child sexual abuse material.
Generative AI – the current state of play
In an exclusive interview with Cyber Intelligence, Mike Finley, the Co-Founder and CTO of AnswerRocket, a business intelligence platform that deals with big data and AI agents, explains what generative AI can do for companies right now. AI is changing faster than people are capable of understanding. So the general misunderstanding of what AI can do is going to be a lasting problem. The fact is that key scientists believe AI is now capable of improving itself, meaning we are at the start of a runaway path forward. At AnswerRocket, our basic DNA is artificial intelligence (AI) to enable business intelligence (BI). This obviously took a new direction with the widespread introduction of generative AI, but our basic approach remains the same.
Cybercriminals pose as law enforcement agencies
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued an urgent warning to business and law enforcement agencies that cybercriminals are using genuine stolen US and foreign government email addresses to hack into companies. As of August this year, the FBI has observed an increase in posts on criminal forums relating to fraudulent emergency data requests. In August 2024, a cyber-criminal known to the FBI offered for sale, “High Quality .gov emails for espionage/social engineering/data extortion requests, etc”, that included official US credentials. The cyber-criminals also offered to guide buyers through emergency data requests and to sell real stolen subpoena documents to allow the buyer(s) to pose as law enforcement officers.
Copyright infringement scam goes global
Since July of this year, cybersecurity firm Check Point has been tracking an ingenious form of online fraud that is rapidly spreading across the US, Europe, East Asia and South America. The attackers impersonate dozens of legitimate companies, claiming the victim’s organization has infringed their copyright. Weaponized emails, which appear to come from the legal representatives of the impersonated companies, accuse the recipient of misusing their brand on the target’s social media page and requesting the removal of specific images and videos. The phishing emails are typically sent from Gmail accounts and prompt recipients to download an archive file. which then installs the latest version of the Rhadamanthys infostealer stealer (version 0.7) in order to steal critical information from the victim’s organization.
Disgruntled ex-Disney employee highlights insider threat
The Walt Disney Company, which has long had a history of troubled labor relations, recently found itself the victim of a disgruntled former employee. According to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint against the former employee, Michael Scheuer, Disney discovered a security breach allegedly used to make its menus unusable, together with the redirection of QR codes to direct Disney customers to a website calling for a boycott of Israel. More seriously, it alleged that the threat actor manipulated allergen information on Disney menus, indicating that certain menu items were safe for people with peanut allergies when, in fact, they could have been potentially deadly for some diners. Scheuer is also alleged to have conducted denial of service attacks on four former colleagues and to have paid visits outside the home of one of them.
The Chinese Communist Party is watching you
Research conducted by Which, the consumer watchdog magazine, has confirmed something the smartphone industry has known for years: Chinese electronic products are routinely used to spy on citizens in countries like the US and the UK. The latest suspects, domestic air fryers, join a long list of products the Chinese are accused of having used to spy on the West, which already ranges from smart watches to automobiles. Which analyzed three air fryers sold in the UK and found that Aigostar, Xiaomi Mi Smart, and Cosori CAF-LI401S knew their customers' precise locations and demanded permission to listen in on users' conversations. The Aigostar air fryer even wanted to know the user's gender and date of birth when setting up an account. Disturbingly, both the Aigostar and Xiaomi air fryers are reported to have sent personal data to servers in China.
Big Tech’s rapidly-shrinking green credentials
Big Tech is currently performing a rather awkward fan dance, trying to cover up its rape and pillage of the earth’s more finite resources with its rapidly shrinking green credentials. Silicon Valley’s green credentials may, however, soon vanish altogether under the vast amount of e-waste the rapid rollout of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has already started to generate. Measures such as the installation of waterless urinals and charging points for e-vehicles for Big Tech staff are merely Silicon Valley window dressing for what has always been an incredibly dirty and polluting industry. Named after the material used to manufacture semiconductors in Intel’s chip fabrication plants, Silicon Valley began with an ugly reputation for allowing vast amounts of toxic chemicals to seep into the local environment, allegedly making their way into the bodies of workers and children. Californian locals ruefully commented that the area should be renamed “Cyanide Valley”, as the notorious poison, which is used in the manufacture of semi-conductors, was claimed to have seeped into local soil and water sources.