NCA

December 1, 2016

‘Avalanche’ Global Fraud Ring Dismantled

This post was originally published on this siteIn what’s being billed as an unprecedented global law enforcement response to cybercrime, federal investigators in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe today say they’ve dismantled a sprawling cybercrime machine known as “Avalanche” — a distributed, cloud-hosting network that for the past seven years has been rented out to fraudsters for use in launching countless malware and phishing attacks. The global distribution of servers used in the Avalanche crime machine. Source: Shadowserver.org According to Europol, the action was the result of a four-year joint investigation between Europol, Eurojust the FBI and authorities in the […]
September 6, 2018

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

This post was originally published on this siteA 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. One of many tweets from the attention-starved Apophis Squad, which launched multiple DDoS attacks against KrebsOnsecurity and Protonmail over the past few months. Duke-Cohan — […]
February 20, 2024

Feds Seize LockBit Ransomware Websites, Offer Decryption Tools, Troll Affiliates

This post was originally published on this siteU.S. and U.K. authorities have seized the darknet websites run by LockBit, a prolific and destructive ransomware group that has claimed more than 2,000 victims worldwide and extorted over $120 million in payments. Instead of listing data stolen from ransomware victims who didn’t pay, LockBit’s victim shaming website now offers free recovery tools, as well as news about arrests and criminal charges involving LockBit affiliates. Investigators used the existing design on LockBit’s victim shaming website to feature press releases and free decryption tools. Dubbed “Operation Cronos,” the law enforcement action involved the seizure […]
February 29, 2024

Fulton County, Security Experts Call LockBit’s Bluff

This post was originally published on this siteThe ransomware group LockBit told officials with Fulton County, Ga. they could expect to see their internal documents published online this morning unless the county paid a ransom demand. LockBit removed Fulton County’s listing from its victim shaming website this morning, claiming the county had paid. But county officials said they did not pay, nor did anyone make payment on their behalf. Security experts say LockBit was likely bluffing and probably lost most of the data when the gang’s servers were seized this month by U.S. and U.K. law enforcement. The LockBit website […]