Russia’s War on Ukraine

May 31, 2022

Costa Rica May Be Pawn in Conti Ransomware Group’s Bid to Rebrand, Evade Sanctions

This post was originally published on this site Costa Rica’s national health service was hacked sometime earlier this morning by a Russian ransomware group known as Hive. The intrusion comes just weeks after Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves declared a state of emergency in response to a data ransom attack from a different Russian ransomware gang — Conti. Ransomware experts say there is good reason to believe the same cybercriminals are behind both attacks, and that Hive has been helping Conti rebrand and evade international sanctions targeting extortion payouts to cybercriminals operating in Russia. The Costa Rican publication CRprensa.com reports […]
February 7, 2024

From Cybercrime Saul Goodman to the Russian GRU

This post was originally published on this siteIn 2021, the exclusive Russian cybercrime forum Mazafaka was hacked. The leaked user database shows one of the forum’s founders was an attorney who advised Russia’s top hackers on the legal risks of their work, and what to do if they got caught. A review of this user’s hacker identities shows that during his time on the forums he served as an officer in the special forces of the GRU, the foreign military intelligence agency of the Russian Federation. Launched in 2001 under the tagline “Network terrorism,” Mazafaka would evolve into one of […]
April 4, 2024

Fake Lawsuit Threat Exposes Privnote Phishing Sites

This post was originally published on this siteA cybercrook who has been setting up websites that mimic the self-destructing message service privnote.com accidentally exposed the breadth of their operations recently when they threatened to sue a software company. The disclosure revealed a profitable network of phishing sites that behave and look like the real Privnote, except that any messages containing cryptocurrency addresses will be automatically altered to include a different payment address controlled by the scammers. The real Privnote, at privnote.com. Launched in 2008, privnote.com employs technology that encrypts each message so that even Privnote itself cannot read its contents. […]
May 7, 2024

U.S. Charges Russian Man as Boss of LockBit Ransomware Group

This post was originally published on this siteThe United States joined the United Kingdom and Australia today in sanctioning 31-year-old Russian national Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev as the alleged leader of the infamous ransomware group LockBit. The U.S. Department of Justice also indicted Khoroshev and charged him with using Lockbit to attack more than 2,000 victims and extort at least $100 million in ransomware payments. Image: U.K. National Crime Agency. Khoroshev (Дмитрий Юрьевич Хорошев), a resident of Voronezh, Russia, was charged in a 26-count indictment by a grand jury in New Jersey. “Dmitry Khoroshev conceived, developed, and administered Lockbit, the most […]