Bug Bounty Hunter Ran ISP Doxing Service

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2018 20:52:01 +0000

A Connecticut man who’s earned “bug bounty” rewards and public recognition from top telecom companies for finding and reporting security holes in their Web sites secretly operated a service that leveraged these same flaws to sell their customers’ personal data, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.

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U.S. Secret Service Warns ID Thieves are Abusing USPS’s Mail Scanning Service

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2018 07:28:45 +0000

A year ago, KrebsOnSecurity warned that “Informed Delivery,” a new offering from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that lets residents view scanned images of all incoming mail, was likely to be abused by identity thieves and other fraudsters unless the USPS beefed up security around the program and made it easier for people to opt out. This week, the U.S. Secret Service issued an internal alert warning that many of its field offices have reported crooks are indeed using Informed Delivery to commit various identity theft and credit card fraud schemes.

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Mirai Co-Author Gets 6 Months Confinement, $8.6M in Fines for Rutgers Attacks

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2018 20:36:21 +0000

The convicted co-author of the highly disruptive Mirai botnet malware strain has been sentenced to 2,500 hours of community service, six months home confinement, and ordered to pay $8.6 million in restitution for repeatedly using Mirai to take down Internet services at Rutgers University, his former alma mater.

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Naming & Shaming Web Polluters: Xiongmai

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2018 00:41:56 +0000

What do we do with a company that regularly pumps metric tons of virtual toxic sludge onto the Internet and yet refuses to clean up their act? If ever there were a technology giant that deserved to be named and shamed for polluting the Web, it is Xiongmai — a Chinese maker of electronic parts that power a huge percentage of cheap digital video recorders (DVRs) and Internet-connected security cameras.

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When Security Researchers Pose as Cybercrooks, Who Can Tell the Difference?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2018 23:42:24 +0000

A ridiculous number of companies are exposing some or all of their proprietary and customer data by putting it in the cloud without any kind of authentication needed to read, alter or destroy it. When cybercriminals are the first to discover these missteps, usually the outcome is a demand for money in return for the stolen data. But when these screw-ups are unearthed by security professionals seeking to make a name for themselves, the resulting publicity often can leave the breached organization wishing they’d instead been quietly extorted by anonymous crooks.

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Mirai Botnet Authors Avoid Jail Time

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2018 16:54:40 +0000

Citing “extraordinary cooperation” with the government, a court in Alaska on Tuesday sentenced three men to probation, community service and fines for their admitted roles in authoring and using “Mirai,” a potent malware strain used in countless attacks designed to knock Web sites offline — including an enormously powerful attack in 2016 that sidelined this Web site for nearly four days.

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Leader of DDoS-for-Hire Gang Pleads Guilty to Bomb Threats

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2018 15:51:13 +0000

A 19-year-old man from the United Kingdom who headed a cybercriminal group whose motto was “Feds Can’t Touch Us” pleaded guilty this week to making bomb threats against thousands of schools. On Aug. 31, officers with the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested Hertfordshire resident George Duke-Cohan, who admitted making bomb threats to thousands of schools and a United Airlines flight traveling from the U.K. to San Francisco last month.

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Alleged ‘Satori’ IoT Botnet Operator Sought Media Spotlight, Got Indicted

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2018 02:31:35 +0000

A 20-year-old from Vancouver, Washington was indicted last week on federal hacking charges and for allegedly operating the “Satori” botnet, a malware strain unleashed last year that infected hundreds of thousands of wireless routers and other “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices. This outcome is hardly surprising given that the accused’s alleged alter ego has been relentless in seeking media attention for this global crime machine.

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