IRS to Make ID Protection PIN Open to All
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said this week that beginning in 2021 it will allow all taxpayers to apply for an identity protection personal identification number (IP PIN), a single-use code designed to block identity thieves from falsely...
Account Hijacking Site OGUsers Hacked, Again
For at least the third time in its existence, OGUsers — a forum overrun with people looking to buy, sell and trade access to compromised social media accounts — has been hacked.
An offer by the apparent hackers of OGUsers,...
Bomb Threat, DDoS Purveyor Gets Eight Years
A 22-year-old North Carolina man has been sentenced to nearly eight years in prison for conducting bomb threats against thousands of schools in the U.S. and United Kingdom, running a service that launched distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and for...
GoDaddy Employees Used in Attacks on Multiple Cryptocurrency Services
Fraudsters redirected email and web traffic destined for several cryptocurrency trading platforms over the past week. The attacks were facilitated by scams targeting employees at GoDaddy, the world’s largest domain name registrar, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.
The incident is the latest...
Convicted SIM Swapper Gets 3 Years in Jail
A 21-year-old Irishman who pleaded guilty to charges of helping to steal millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies from victims has been sentenced to just under three years in prison. The defendant is part of an alleged conspiracy involving at...
Trump Fires Security Chief Christopher Krebs
President Trump on Tuesday fired his top election security official Christopher Krebs (no relation). The dismissal came via Twitter two weeks to the day after Trump lost an election he baselessly claims was stolen by widespread voting fraud.
Chris Krebs....
Be Very Sparing in Allowing Site Notifications
An increasing number of websites are asking visitors to approve “notifications,” browser modifications that periodically display messages on the user’s mobile or desktop device. In many cases these notifications are benign, but several dodgy firms are paying site owners...
Patch Tuesday, November 2020 Edition
Adobe and Microsoft each issued a bevy of updates today to plug critical security holes in their software. Microsoft’s release includes fixes for 112 separate flaws, including one zero-day vulnerability that is already being exploited to attack Windows users....
Ransomware Group Turns to Facebook Ads
It’s bad enough that many ransomware gangs now have blogs where they publish data stolen from companies that refuse to make an extortion payment. Now, one crime group has started using hacked Facebook accounts to run ads publicly pressuring...
Body Found in Canada Identified as Neo-Nazi Spam King
The body of a man found shot inside a burned out vehicle in Canada three years ago has been identified as that of Davis Wolfgang Hawke, a prolific spammer and neo-Nazi who led a failed anti-government march on Washington,...
Why Paying to Delete Stolen Data is Bonkers
Companies hit by ransomware often face a dual threat: Even if they avoid paying the ransom and can restore things from scratch, about half the time the attackers also threaten to release sensitive stolen data unless the victim pays...
Two Charged in SIM Swapping, Vishing Scams
Two young men from the eastern United States have been hit with identity theft and conspiracy charges for allegedly stealing bitcoin and social media accounts by tricking employees at wireless phone companies into giving away credentials needed to remotely...
FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent, Credible Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals
On Monday, Oct. 27, KrebsOnSecurity began following up on a tip from a reliable source that an aggressive Russian cybercriminal gang known for deploying ransomware was preparing to disrupt information technology systems at hundreds of hospitals, clinics and medical...
Security Blueprints of Many Companies Leaked in Hack of Swedish Firm Gunnebo
In March 2020, KrebsOnSecurity alerted Swedish security giant Gunnebo Group that hackers had broken into its network and sold the access to a criminal group which specializes in deploying ransomware. In August, Gunnebo said it had successfully thwarted a...
Google Mending Another Crack in Widevine
For the second time in as many years, Google is working to fix a weakness in its Widevine digital rights management (DRM) technology used by online streaming sites like Disney, Hulu and Netflix to prevent their content from being...
Italy Says Two Arrested for Defense Data Theft
Two people have been arrested for stealing defense data from the Italian aerospace and electronics group Leonardo, the interior ministry said on Saturday.
The company has a wide range of activities from naval electronics, network and protection systems, electronic warfare...
The US Used the Patriot Act to Justify Logging Website Users
Plus: Better Twitter two-factor, a Spotify hack, and more of the week’s top security news.
Ransomware hits helicopter maker Kopter
Data from Kopter's internal network has been published on the LockBit gang's blog, hosted on the dark web.
Ransomware gangs are now cold-calling victims if they restore from backups without paying
Tactic used since August by ransomware gangs like Sekhmet, Maze, Conti, and Ryuk.
Kmart, a vulnerable target, among those hit in Egregor ransomware attack spree
The fast-moving Egregor ransomware added Kmart to its list of retail targets, one day before the same attack group hit the Vancouver metro.
The fast-moving Egregor ransomware has already hit other recognizable companies, most notably Barnes and Noble. Egregor first...
