Spam Nation – Computer Security Articles

Feds Allege Adconion Employees Hijacked IP Addresses for Spamming

September 2, 2019 admin A Little Sunshine, Adconion Direct, Amir Golestan, Amobee, ARIN, Blackstar Media LLC, CAN-SPAM, Daniel Dye, HostWinds, Jacob Bychak, Kim Perell, Mark Manoogian, Media Breakaway, Micfo, Mohammed Abdul Qayyum, Optinrealbig, Peter Holden, Petr Pacas, Scott Richter, SingTel, Spam Nation, spamhaus, The Coming Storm

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2019 20:52:00 +0000

Federal prosecutors in California have filed criminal charges against four employees of Adconion Direct, an email advertising firm, alleging they unlawfully hijacked vast swaths of Internet addresses and used them in large-scale spam campaigns. KrebsOnSecurity has learned that the charges are likely just the opening salvo in a much larger, ongoing federal investigation into the company’s commercial email practices.

Independent Krebs

Alleged Spam Kingpin ‘Severa’ Extradited to US

February 5, 2018 admin Alan Ralsky, Artem Sergeev, Conficker, Cosma, Dmitri A. Sergeev, fake news, Kelihos, Mikhail D. Prokhorov, Ne'er-Do-Well News, Peter Severa, Pyotr Yuryevich Levashov, Sergey Vladomirovich Sergeev, Severa, Spam Nation, Spamit, Vladimir V. Putin, waledac, wired.com

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2018 18:28:30 +0000

Peter Yuryevich Levashov, a 37-year-old Russian computer programmer thought to be one of the world’s most notorious spam kingpins, has been extradited to the United States to face federal hacking and spamming charges. Levashov, who allegedly went by the hacker name “Peter Severa,” or “Peter of the North,” hails from St. Petersburg in northern Russia, but he was arrested last year while in Barcelona, Spain with his family. Authorities have long suspected he is the cybercriminal behind the once powerful spam botnet known as Waledac (a.k.a. “Kelihos”), a now-defunct malware strain responsible for sending more than 1.5 billion spam, phishing and malware attacks each day.

Independent Krebs

Alleged Spam King Pyotr Levashov Arrested

April 9, 2017 admin Alan Ralsky, fake antivirus, fake AV, Kelihos botnet, Mikhail D. Prokhorov, New York Times, Other, Peter Ivashov, Peter Levashov, Peter Severa, Pyotr Levashov, Reuters, ROKSO, Spam Nation, spamdot.biz, spamhaus, Spamit, Viktor Sergeevich Ivashov, Vladimir Putin, waledac

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2017 04:17:09 +0000

Authorities in Spain have arrested a Russian computer programmer thought to be one of the world’s most notorious spam kingpins. Spanish police arrested Pyotr Levashov under an international warrant executed in the city of Barcelona, according to Reuters. Russian state-run television station RT (formerly Russia Today) reported that Levashov was arrested while vacationing in Spain with his family. According to numerous stories here at KrebsOnSecurity, Levashov was better known as “Severa,” the hacker moniker used by a pivotal figure in many popular Russian-language cybercrime forums. Severa was the moderator for the spam subsection of multiple online communities, and in this role served as the virtual linchpin connecting virus writers with huge spam networks that Severa allegedly created and sold himself.

Independent Krebs

A Shakeup in Russia’s Top Cybercrime Unit

January 28, 2017 admin chronopay, crutop, FBI, FSB, Humpty Dumpty, idefense, Indrik, kaspersky lab, Kimberly Zenz, King Servers, Other, pavel vrublevsky, Ruslan Stoyanov, Sergey Mikhaylov, Spam Nation, ThreatConnect, Шалтай-Болтай

A chief criticism I heard from readers of my book, Spam Nation: The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime, was that it dealt primarily with petty crooks involved in petty crimes, while ignoring more substantive security issues like government surveillance and cyber war. But now it appears that the chief antagonist of Spam Nation is at the dead center of an international scandal involving the hacking of U.S. state electoral boards in Arizona and Illinois, the sacking of Russia’s top cybercrime investigators, and the slow but steady leak of unflattering data on some of Russia’s most powerful politicians.

Independent Krebs

The Download on the DNC Hack

January 23, 2017 admin Andrew Kramer, Dmitry Artimovich, DNC hack, Donald Trump, Festi, Forbes, Kaleev Leetaru, King Servers, Nina Agrawal, Other, power grid hack, Rolling Stone, Spam Nation, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, ThreatConnect, Vladimir M. Fomenko

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been inundated with questions from readers asking why I haven’t written much about two stories that have consumed the news media of late: The alleged Russian hacking attacks against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and, more recently, the discovery of malware on a laptop at a Vermont power utility that has been attributed to Russian hacker groups. I’ve avoided covering these stories mainly because I don’t have any original reporting to add to them, and because I generally avoid chasing the story of the day — preferring instead to focus on producing original journalism on cybercrime and computer security.