Category Archives: Web Fraud 2.0

U.S. Charges 37 Alleged Money Mules

September 30, 2010
32 Comments

Troy Owen never thought he’d see the day when the cyber thieves who robbed his company of $800,000 would ever be charged with any crime. Owens said that investigators told him that the perpetrators were mostly overseas in places like Ukraine and Moldova, and that it might be tough to catch those responsible.

But on Thursday afternoon, authorities in New York announced they had charged more than 60 individuals — and arrested 20 — in connection with international cyber heists perpetrated against dozens of companies in the United States, including Owen’s.

I’ll Take 2 MasterCards and a Visa, Please

September 22, 2010
93 Comments

When you’re shopping for stolen credit and debit cards online, there are so many choices these days. A glut of stolen data — combined with innovation and cutthroat competition among vendors — is conspiring to keep prices for stolen account numbers exceptionally low. Even so, many readers probably have no idea that their credit card information is worth only about $1.50 on the black market.

SpyEye Botnet’s Bogus Billing Feature

September 17, 2010
11 Comments

Miscreants who control large groupings of hacked PCs or “botnets” are always looking for ways to better monetize their crime machines, and competition among rival exploit kit developers is leading to several ingenious new features. The SpyEye botnet kit, for example, now not only allows botnet owners to automate the extraction of credit card and other financial data from infected systems, but it also can be configured to use those credentials to gin up bogus sales at online stores set up by the botmaster.

‘Stuxnet’ Worm Far More Sophisticated Than Previously Thought

September 14, 2010
29 Comments

The “Stuxnet” computer worm made international headlines in July, when security experts discovered that it was designed to use a previously unknown security hole in Microsoft Windows computers to steal industrial secrets and potentially disrupt operations of critical information networks. But new information about the worm shows that it leverages at least three other previously unknown security holes in Windows PCs, including a vulnerability that Redmond fixed in a software patch released today.

NetworkSolutions Sites Hacked By Wicked Widget

August 16, 2010
23 Comments

Hundreds of thousands of Web sites parked at NetworkSolutions.com have been serving up malicious software, thanks to a tainted widget embedded in the pages, a security company warned Saturday.

Web application security vendor Armorize said it found the mass infection while responding to a complaint by one of its largest customers. Armorize said it traced the problem back to the “Small Business Success Index” widget, an application that Network Solutions makes available to site owners through its GrowSmartBusiness.com blog.