3 Ways Hacks Exploiting the COVID-19 Crisis Have Evolved
Over the last year, the COVID-19 pandemic has been punctuated by a series of crises and developments: In February, the U.S. declared a public health emergency; In March, the economy contracted and unemployment skyrocketed; Relief packages were both passed and stalled in Congress throughout the year; And by December, vaccines were given emergency approval. With each of these events, hackers altered their techniques in an effort to capitalize on pandemic fears, according to a new report…
Bidenâs Pick for Acting CIA Director Has a Lot To Say About Ransomware and Cybercrime
Cohen will lead the CIA as the U.S. confronts what experts say is one of the most significant cybersecurity incidents to ever target the government. Russia was recently blamed for an attack that affects potentially thousands of companies and government agencies, and cybersecurity experts say it might have been carried out by the countryâs Foreign Intelligence Service, which has similar objectives to the CIA….
What Itâs Like to Run a Hacking Forum: A Conversation With RaidForums Owner Omnipotent
For the last five years, RaidForums has made a name for itself for being a constant source of high-profile database leaks. RaidForums was started in 2015 by a user named Omnipotent, who still operates the site. Omnipotent talked with Recorded Future expert threat intelligence analyst Dmitry Smilyanets about why he started RaidForums and what itâs like to operate it….
Hackerâs Early Release Gets Sidetracked After Federal Prosecutors Say He Continued Crimes From Prison
In a surprise twist to a drawn-out legal saga, a foreign hacker who was scheduled to be imminently released from federal prison and deported was charged Tuesday evening with allegedly continuing his fraudulent schemes from behind bars. Ardit Ferizi, a Kosovo citizen who was arrested in 2015 in Malaysia and later extradited to the U.S., was granted a compassionate release by a federal judge last month due to the coronavirus outbreak….
Sen. Warner Says U.S. âUnderestimate[s] and Underreport[s]â on Russian Hacks Following SolarWinds Breach
A Senate Democrat who has been a top backer of cybersecurity and intelligence policies accused the Trump administration of âwatering downâ Russiaâs responsibility for the SolarWinds breach and warned that the hackers had compromised several high-profile victims that remain unidentified. Mark Warner, who as Vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee spearheaded a five-volume report on the 2016 Russian election interference campaign, called that statement âone more outrageous effort to underestimate and underreport on Russian activity…”
The SolarWinds Hack and the Perils of Attribution
On Tuesday, a multi-agency task force stood up by the U.S. National Security Council to investigate and respond to the SolarWinds compromise issued a statement alleging that hackers âlikely Russian in originâ were behind the intrusion, offering the first official indication that the government believes the attacks were ordered by the Kremlin. But nearly a month after the compromise was first detected, none of the private security companies that are leading the investigation into the intrusionsâand often provide the forensic data necessary to identify the perpetrators behind state-sponsored cyber-campaignsâhave pinned the blame on a specific group….
âI Was Running Two Parallel Livesâ: An Ex-Secret Service Agent Opens Up About Going Undercover To Catch Cybercriminals
Until recently, Richard LaTulip was one of the Secret Serviceâs special agents who went undercover to better understand cybercriminals. On occasion, he would even befriend hackers. âI opened the door and there on the other side was the target standing with a liter of vodka… a gift from their home country,â he recalled. LaTulip, who left the agency in July to join the private sector, opened up about his experiences at the Secret Service in a recent interview with Recorded Future expert threat intelligence analyst Dmitry Smilyanets. The two first met in 2012, when Smilyanets himself was interviewed by LaTulip in relation to his involvement in a major data breach investigation….
How Cybersecurity Will Change in 2021
Weâre going to be powering up machines that have been touched for a year. Organizations might want to think twice before putting out a big PR release that theyâre going back to the office on a certain date. Figuring out how to get machines patched and inoculating employees against phishing before returning to the office is going to be important…
The Year of the Teenage Hacker
The year 2020 was full of high-profile cyberattacks launched by criminal gangs and state-sponsored hackers. But dozens of headline-grabbing cybersecurity incidents and arrests this year involved teenagersâsome of whom havenât even graduated high school yet. As the coronavirus pandemic forced schools across the country to adopt distance learning programs and change the way they operate, some studentsâlikely pent up at home with a lot of time and little to do that doesnât involve a Wi-Fi connectionâseem to have used it as an opportunity to hone their hacking skills…
An Interview With Russian Hacker Pavel Sitnikov: âThere Is No [Hacking] Scene Now, Only Commerceâ
Hackers often go to great lengths to be discreet. Thatâs not the case with Pavel Sitnikov. The long-standing, Russian-speaking hacker until recently posted frequently on Twitter, where he listed his name, his alias (FlatL1ne), and his self-proclaimed connection with the infamous hacking group APT28, or Fancy Bearâhis Twitter account is currently suspended…