Arrests in $400M SIM-Swap Tied to Heist at FTX?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2024 18:41:37 +0000

Three Americans were charged this week with stealing more than $400 million in a November 2022 SIM-swapping attack. The U.S. government did not name the victim organization, but there is every indication that the money was stolen from the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which had just filed for bankruptcy on that same day.

Read more

Fla. Man Charged in SIM-Swapping Spree is Key Suspect in Hacker Groups Oktapus, Scattered Spider

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2024 19:07:18 +0000

On Jan. 9, 2024, U.S. authorities arrested a 19-year-old Florida man charged with wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiring with others to use SIM-swapping to steal cryptocurrency. Sources close to the investigation tell KrebsOnSecurity the accused was a key member of a criminal hacking group blamed for a string of cyber intrusions at major U.S. technology companies during the summer of 2022.

Read more

Who is Alleged Medibank Hacker Aleksandr Ermakov?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2024 18:12:09 +0000

Authorities in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States this week levied financial sanctions against a Russian man accused of stealing data on nearly 10 million customers of the Australian health insurance giant Medibank. 33-year-old Aleksandr Ermakov allegedly stole and leaked the Medibank data while working with one of Russia’s most destructive ransomware groups, but little more is shared about the accused. Here’s a closer look at the activities of Mr. Ermakov’s alleged hacker handles.

Read more

E-Crime Rapper ‘Punchmade Dev’ Debuts Card Shop

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2024 17:00:40 +0000

The rapper and social media personality Punchmade Dev is perhaps best known for his flashy videos singing the praises of a cybercrime lifestyle. With memorable hits such as “Internet Swiping” and “Million Dollar Criminal” earning millions of views, Punchmade has leveraged his considerable following to peddle tutorials on how to commit financial crimes online. But until recently, there wasn’t much to support a conclusion that Punchmade was actually doing the cybercrime things he promotes in his songs.

Read more

Alleged Extortioner of Psychotherapy Patients Faces Trial

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2023 19:59:14 +0000

Prosecutors in Finland this week commenced their criminal trial against Julius Kivimäki, a 26-year-old Finnish man charged with extorting a once popular and now-bankrupt online psychotherapy practice and thousands of its patients. In a 2,200-page report, Finnish authorities laid out how they connected the extortion spree to Kivimäki, a notorious hacker who was convicted in 2015 of perpetrating tens of thousands of cybercrimes, including data breaches, payment fraud, operating a botnet and calling in bomb threats.

Read more

Who’s Behind the SWAT USA Reshipping Service?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2023 13:51:31 +0000

Last week, KrebsOnSecurity broke the news that one of the largest cybercrime services for laundering stolen merchandise was hacked recently, exposing its internal operations, finances and organizational structure. In today’s Part II, we’ll examine clues about the real-life identity left behind by “Fearless,” the nickname chosen by the proprietor of the SWAT USA Drops service.

Read more

Russian Reshipping Service ‘SWAT USA Drop’ Exposed

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2023 19:55:34 +0000

One of the largest cybercrime services for laundering stolen merchandise was hacked recently, exposing its internal operations, finances and organizational structure. Here’s a closer look at the Russia-based SWAT USA Drop Service, which currently employs more than 1,200 people across the United States who are knowingly or unwittingly involved in reshipping expensive consumer goods purchased with stolen credit cards.

Read more

NJ Man Hired Online to Firebomb, Shoot at Homes Gets 13 Years in Prison

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2023 13:08:27 +0000

A 22-year-old New Jersey man has been sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for participating in a firebombing and a shooting at homes in Pennsylvania last year. Patrick McGovern-Allen was the subject of a Sept. 4, 2022 story here about the emergence of “violence-as-a-service” offerings, where random people from the Internet hire themselves out to perform a variety of local, physical attacks, including firebombing a home, “bricking” windows, slashing tires, or performing a drive-by shooting at someone’s residence.

Read more