Tag: germany
Germany Seeks Cybersecurity Partnership with Israel – July 2nd
Germany seeks to strengthen its cybersecurity collaboration with Israel in light of the recent escalation between Iran and Israel. Initiative “Cyber Dome” includes a German-Israeli cyber research center and expanded cooperation between Israel’s Mossad and Germany’s BND intelligence agency.
Cybercrime forums span national boundaries
The bust of the illegal Cracked and Nulled crime forums evidences the global nature of cybercrime and the impossibility of seeing it as a threat that has no regard for national boundaries. Although at least 17 million US citizens were victims of the crime forums. law enforcement agencies in the United States, Romania, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Greece were all involved in the bust, according to the US Department of Justice.
Russian Authorities Arrest FBI’s Most Wanted Hacker
The FBI’s most wanted hacker, Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev, dubbed the “Moriarty” of cybercrime, has finally been arrested by Russian authorities. Described by the FBI as a “prolific” cybercriminal, Matveev has had a $10 million bounty on his head for any information leading to his arrest since 2023. The arrest is a turning point on the part of the Russian authorities, as cybercriminals have long seen Russia as a safe haven. According to intelligence sources, this could either represent an attempt to try and legitimize the Russian economy or an indication that the state is taking back control of cyber-attacks on Western economies.
INC Ransom Hits Three UK Health Orgs – December 4th
German authorities have made arrests linked to drug-selling platform Crimenetwork, seizing over $1 million in crypto assets. Crimenetwork is alleged to be the largest darkweb marketplace in the country and enabled users to buy and sell drugs, and offered illicit services such as the forging of documents and trading of stolen data.
German Intelligence warns of Russian cyber-attacks
The cyber cold war just became a little warmer, with German Intelligence now publicly crying foul on Monday at Russia for online attacks stretching back to 2020. Germany’s Bundesverfassungsschutz has issued a strong warning against a cyber group belonging to Russian military intelligence (GRU) Unit 29155, which was linked to the 2018 poisonings of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in the UK, claiming that the unit has also been active in carrying out cyberattacks against NATO and EU countries.
BogusBazarr signals red light for brands
By operating a “fraud-as-a-service’ (FaaS) website, BogusBazarr, operating out of China, runs 200 fraudulent webshops and has so far claimed 850,000 victims, mostly from the US and Western Europe. Victims who access BogusBazarr shops are offered amazing-sounding deals on shoes and apparel from well-known brands. But as the webshops are totally fraudulent, the victims end up having their credit card details stolen with nothing to show for it.
UK Deputy PM Warns of Chinese Cyber Threats to Government – March 25th
The UK's Deputy Prime Minister, Oliver Dowden, is expected to formally announce to the press that China is behind a wave of cyber attacks against UK government officials and will urge the protection of voters' data. Despite the denial from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UK government remains on high alert for politically fueled cyber attacks as the election period nears.
Doppleganger mob set to spike US and UK elections
Russian hacktivists named Doppelgänger have been interfering in Germany’s elections with a view to influence the outcome of upcoming European elections, according to a report from SentinelLabs and ClearSky Cyber Security. “Doppelgänger represents an active instrument of information warfare. We anticipate that Doppelgänger’s activities, targeting not only Germany but also other Western countries, will persist and evolve, particularly in light of the major elections scheduled across the EU and the USA in the coming years,” says the report.
International Law Enforcement Seizes LockBit’s Website – February 20th
U.S. and U.K. authorities announced the seizure of the LockBit ransomware gang's extortion website. The "Operation Cronos" campaign was led by the UK's National Crime Agency, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Europol, in collaboration with a coalition of police agencies from 9 countries globally. However, LockBit posted messages on an encrypted messaging app saying its backup servers were unaffected.
iOS Trojan Steals Facial Recognition Data – February 16th
Group-IB discovered a new iOS Trojan named "GoldPickaxe.iOS" that was built to steal facial recognition data from infected iOS devices. The 'GoldPickaxe' Trojan abuses the TestFlight exploit, which sends users innocent URLs that downloads the malware when clicked. According to Group-IB, the stolen biometric data is used to gain unauthorized access to banking accounts.
Blocked IP Addresses Increase by 116% – February 9th
According to a report by Qrator Labs, blocked IP addresses associated with malicious activity increased by 116% in Q3 2023. The increase in blocked IP addresses is credited to threat actors attempting to bypass geo-blocking. Top top 5 countries originating these blocked IP addresses consist of the United States (5.66 million), China (4.97 million), Germany (1.39 million), Indonesia (1.32 million), and Singapore (1.03 million).
26 Billion Stolen Record Database Discovered – January 24th
Security Discovery researchers and the Cybernews team discovered the largest data leak ever recorded, containing 26 billion records predominantly stolen from major social media platforms and government agencies. Dubbed "The Mother of All Breaches", the 12 terabytes of compromised records were stolen most notably from Tencent QQ (1.5B), Weibo (504M), MySpace (360M), Twitter (281M), LinkedIn (251M), AdultFriendFinder (220M), among government agency data from the United States, Brazil, Germany, the Philippines, Turkey, among others.