In case you needed yet another reason to change the default username and password on your wired or wireless Internet router: Phishers are sending out links that, when clicked, quietly alter the settings on vulnerable routers to harvest online banking credentials and other sensitive data… Read More »
Two days ago, attackers allegedly associated with the fame-seeking group Lizard Squad briefly hijacked Google’s Vietnam domain (google.com.vn). On Wednesday, Lenovo.com was similarly attacked. Sources now tell KrebsOnSecurity that both hijacks were possible because the attackers seized control over Webnic.cc, the Malaysian registrar that serves both domains and 600,000 others.
The FBI this week announced it is offering a USD $3 million bounty for information leading to the arrest and conviction of one Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev, a Russian man the government believes is responsible for building and distributing the ZeuS banking Trojan.
So much of the intelligence gathered about Bogachev and his alleged accomplices has been scattered across various court documents and published reports over the years, but probably just as much on this criminal mastermind and his associates has never seen the light of day. What follows is a compendium of knowledge — a bit of a dossier, if you will — of Bogachev and his trusted associates.
Two former security employees at Intuit — the makers of the popular tax preparation software and service TurboTax — allege that the company has made millions of dollars knowingly processing state and federal tax refunds filed by cybercriminals. Intuit says it leads the industry in voluntarily reporting suspicious returns, and that ultimately it is up to the Internal Revenue Service to develop industry-wide requirements for tax preparation firms to follow in their collective fight against the multi-billion dollar problem of tax refund fraud.
Scam artists stole billions of dollars last year from the U.S. Treasury by filing phony federal tax refund requests on millions of Americans. But as Uncle Sam has made this type of fraud harder for thieves to profit from, the crooks have massively shifted their focus to conducting refund fraud at the state level. Or at least according to Intuit Inc., the makers of TurboTax: The company says it believes that shift is responsible for a whopping 3700 percent increase in fraudulent state tax refund filings this year in some states.
I am pleased to announce that my new book, Spam Nation: The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime, from Global Epidemic to Your Front Door, has been honored with a 2015 PROSE Award in the Media & Cultural Studies category.
I received a number of media requests and emails from readers over the weekend to comment on a front-page New York Times story about an organized gang of cybercriminals pulling off “one of the largest bank heists ever.” Turns out, I reported on this gang’s activities in December 2014, although my story ran minus many of the superlatives in the Times piece.
I recall the first time I encountered an armed security guard at a local store. I remember feeling a bit concerned about the safety of the place because I made a snap assumption that it must have been robbed recently. I get the same feeling each time I fuel up my car at a filling station and notice the pump and credit card reader festooned with security tape that conjures up images of police tape around a crime scene.
The Defense Contract Management Agency, the U.S. federal government entity responsible for performing contract administration services for the Department of Defense, is responding to a suspected cybersecurity breach and has pulled a number of its servers offline while the investigation continues, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.
Microsoft today released nine update bundles to plug at least 55 distinct security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating system and other software. Three of the patches fix bugs in Windows that Microsoft considers “critical,” meaning they can be exploited remotely to compromise vulnerable systems with little or no help from users, save for perhaps clicking a link or visiting a hostile Web site.
