Botnet operator behind $14 million in ransomware extortion payments gets 24 months behind bars 2026-03-25 at 17:13 By Sinisa Markovic A Russian national has been sentenced to 24 months in prison after admitting he managed a botnet used to launch ransomware attacks against dozens of U.S. companies. The judge also imposed a $100,000 fine and […]
Russian initial access broker helped ransomware gangs extort millions, sentenced to 81 months 2026-03-24 at 19:53 By Sinisa Markovic A Russian citizen, Aleksei Volkov, was sentenced to 81 months in prison for helping ransomware groups carry out attacks causing over $9 million in actual losses and over $24 million in intended losses, after being arrested […]
Terminated contract led to $2.5 million cyber extortion scheme 2026-03-20 at 19:32 By Sinisa Markovic A federal jury convicted Cameron Curry, 27, a Charlotte resident, of carrying out an extensive cyber extortion scheme targeting a Washington, D.C.-based international technology company. He faces up to two years in prison on each of the six charges. Curry, […]
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Fake AI songs streamed billions of times, netting fraudster $10 million 2026-03-20 at 12:20 By Anamarija Pogorelec Michael Smith, 54, of Cornelius, North Carolina, has pleaded guilty in federal court to running a scheme that exploited music streaming platforms and diverted royalty payments from artists. He admitted to one count of conspiracy to commit wire […]
Fake AI songs streamed billions of times, netting fraudster $10 million Read More »
Authorities dismantle SocksEscort proxy network behind millions in fraud 2026-03-13 at 12:22 By Sinisa Markovic SocksEscort, a residential proxy network used to exploit thousands of compromised home routers worldwide and facilitate large-scale fraud that cost victims millions of dollars, has been disrupted in an international law enforcement operation led by the U.S. Department of Justice. […]
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Ex-L3Harris executive sentenced to 87 months for selling stolen cyber-exploit trade secrets 2026-02-25 at 12:15 By Sinisa Markovic Peter Williams, a former executive of Trenchant, L3Harris’ cyber division, has been sentenced to 87 months in prison by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., after pleading guilty to stealing and selling sensitive cyber-exploit trade secrets to […]
Incognito dark web drug market operator gets 30 years in prison 2026-02-04 at 18:17 By Sinisa Markovic Rui-Siang Lin, a Taiwanese national, was sentenced to 30 years in U.S. federal prison for operating Incognito Market, one of the world’s largest illicit online narcotics marketplaces. Incognito Market splash page and graphical interface Incognito Market operated on […]
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Ex-Google engineer found guilty of stealing AI secrets 2026-01-30 at 12:40 By Sinisa Markovic A federal jury in California convicted former Google software engineer Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets tied to AI technology. Ding faces a maximum sentence of […]
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Five men admit helping North Korean IT workers infiltrate US companies 2025-11-17 at 14:59 By Zeljka Zorz US federal prosecutors have secured guilty pleas from five men who helped North Korean IT workers get hired by companies in the United States. This group of domestic facilitators helped a sanctioned government move money, slip past hiring […]
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Former ransomware negotiators allegedly targeted US firms with ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware 2025-11-04 at 15:04 By Zeljka Zorz A ransomware negotiator and an incident response manager have been indicted in Florida for allegedly conspiring to deploy the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware against multiple US companies and extorting nearly $1.3 million from one of the victims. According to a federal […]
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145 criminal domains linked to BidenCash Marketplace seized 2025-06-06 at 13:01 By Help Net Security Approximately 145 darknet and conventional internet domains, along with cryptocurrency funds linked to the BidenCash marketplace, have been seized by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. The operators of the BidenCash marketplace use the platform to […]
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DanaBot botnet disrupted, QakBot leader indicted 2025-05-23 at 14:17 By Zeljka Zorz Operation Endgame, mounted by law enforcement and judicial authorities from the US, Canada and the EU, continues to deliver positive results by disrupting the DanaBot botnet and indicting the leaders of both the DanaBot and Qakbot Malware-as-a-Service operations. Operation Endgame 2.0 Coordinated by […]
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Lumma Stealer Malware-as-a-Service operation disrupted 2025-05-21 at 21:21 By Zeljka Zorz A coordinated action by US, European and Japanese authorities and tech companies like Microsoft and Cloudflare has disrupted the infrastructure behind Lumma Stealer, the most significant infostealer threat at the moment. What is Lumma Stealer? Lumma Stealer is Malware-as-a-Service offering beloved by a wide […]
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Law enforcement takes down proxy botnets used by criminals 2025-05-12 at 21:11 By Zeljka Zorz US and Dutch law enforcement, with the help of Lumen researchers, have disrupted 5socks and Anyproxy, two proxy-for-rent services that were used by criminals for ad fraud and DDoS and brute-force attacks (among other things). The domain seizure notice The […]
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Two Estonians plead guilty in $577M cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme 2025-02-17 at 13:48 By Zeljka Zorz Two Estonian nationals may spend the next 20 years in prison for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars through a massive cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, the US Department of Justice announced last week. The fraudulent operation “According to court documents, Sergei […]
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FBI removed PlugX malware from U.S. computers 2025-01-15 at 14:24 By Help Net Security The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that, alongside international partners, the FBI deleted “PlugX” malware from thousands of infected computers worldwide. As described in court documents unsealed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a group of hackers sponsored by the People’s […]
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Alleged Blender, Sinbad cryptomixer operators arrested, indicted 2025-01-13 at 13:34 By Help Net Security Three Russian nationals have been indicted in the Northern District of Georgia for their alleged role as operators of cryptocurrency mixing (cryptomixer) services Blender.io and Sinbad.io. Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko and Alexander Evgenievich Oleynik were arrested on Dec. 1, 2024, roughly a […]
Alleged Blender, Sinbad cryptomixer operators arrested, indicted Read More »