A leading Russian politician has accused a prominent Moscow businessman of running an international spam and online pharmacy operation while serving as an anti-spam adviser to the Russian government. Russian investigators now say they plan to create a special task force to look into the allegations.
Phishing may not be the most sophisticated form of cyber crime, but it can be a lucrative trade for those who decide to make it their day jobs. Indeed, data secretly collected from an international phishing operation over the last 18 months suggests that criminals who pursue a career in phishing can steal millions of dollars a year, even if they only manage to snag just a few victims per scam.
Last week I traveled to Cooperstown, N.Y. to deliver a keynote address about the scourge of online banking fraud that I’ve written about so frequently this past year. I flew into Albany, and in the short, 60 minute drive west to Cooperstown, I passed through tiny Duanesburg, a town whose middle school district is still out a half million dollars from e-banking fraud. On my way to Cooperstown, I also passed within a few minutes of several other recent victims — including a wrecking firm based on Schenectady that lost $70,000 last month when organized thieves raided its online bank account.
Visa on Friday warned banks that it has received reliable intelligence that an organized criminal group plans to attempt to move large amounts of fraudulent payments through a merchant account in Eastern Europe over the weekend.
Luis Coronns spent much of the last year helping Spanish police with an investigation that led to the arrest of three local men suspected of operating and renting access to a massive and global network of hacked computers. Then, roughly 60 days after their arrest, something strange happened: Two of them unexpectedly turned up at Coronns’ office and asked to be hired as security researchers.
A number of readers recently have written in to say their banks recently have urged customers to install a security program called Rapport as a way to protect their online bank accounts from fraud. The readers who pinged me all said they didn’t know much about this product, and did I recommend installing it? Since it has been almost two years since I last reviewed the software, I thought it might be useful to touch base with its creators to see how this program has kept pace with the latest threats.
Purveyors of fake anti-virus or “scareware” programs have aggressively stepped up their game to evade detection by legitimate anti-virus programs, according to new data from Google.
Malicious hackers spend quite a bit of energy and time gaming the Internet search engines in a bid to have their malware-laden sites turn up on the first page of search results for hot, trending news topics. Increasingly, though, computer criminals are taking steps to keep search bots at bay, particularly with legitimate Web sites that have been hacked and booby-trapped with hostile code.
A call service that catered to bank and identity thieves has been busted up by U.S. and international authorities. The takedown provides a fascinating glimpse into a bustling and relatively crowded niche of fraud services in the criminal hacker underground.… Read More »
Internet hosting provider Network Solutions is once again trying to limit the damage from a hacking incident that has left a large number of customer Web sites serving up malicious code.
