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Indicted, but not forgotten
Once again we look back at the past class in cybercrime and those who we turn a loss … to the law . This yr wasno unlike to last : We ascertain another round of gamy - profile bust , arrests , sanction and prison house time for some of the most fertile cybercriminals in recent years .
This is our spirit back at who got nabbed or otherwise bust , have : why a Russian impeach of ransomware burned his passport , which notorious malware gang reared its horrifying head again and why one country ’s hackers place an unsuspecting phone maker .
Hacker responsible for 2020 Twitter breach sentenced to prison
For a time , Joseph James O’Connor was one of the net ’s most wanted hackers , not just by the feds enquire the breach , but for the rum world who watched his hack play out in real time .
O’Connor was a fellow member of the hacking group that break out into Twitter to maltreat admittance toan national admin tool they used to hijack high - profile Twitter accounting , including Apple , Joe Biden and Elon Musk ( whowent on to buy the internet site ) to spread a crypto scam . Twitter ingest drastic criterion to rid the hackers from its net by temporarily block all of the site ’s 200 - million - plus users from post .
A New York justice sentenced the 24 - year - previous hacker to five year in prison , two of which O’Connor already served in pre - trial detention .
Ex-Amazon engineer pleads guilty to crypto exchange hacks
Union prosecutor this twelvemonth accuseda former Amazon employee of hacking into a cryptocurrency exchangeand stealing millions ’ Charles Frederick Worth of client ’ crypto . The typeface appeared at first as an honourable cyber-terrorist turn rogue by ostensibly offering to return the finances in return for a bug bounty . But ultimately Shakeeb Ahmed was caught out in part by Googling his own crimes that prosecutors say come to to “ his own criminal liability . ”
In the closing , Ahmed plead hangdog earlier in December , according to the Justice Department , and faces up to five years in prison — and paying back $ 5 million to victims .
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Feds accuse Mikhail Matveev of being ‘central figure’ in ransomware gang
Why did a Russian man incriminate by U.S. prosecuting attorney of ransomware attacksburn his passport ? fit in to the incriminate hacker , Mikhail Matveev , it ’s because U.S. governance charges would take after him anywhere he went and most countries would deliver him for the offence he ’s charge of — crimes he has n’t denied , per se , but rather externally embraced . In an consultation with TechCrunch , Matveev said the last fourth dimension he traveled was to Thailand in 2014 , but not since .
Union prosecutors say Matveevis a “ central figure ” in developing and deploy the Hive , LockBit and Babuk ransomware variant , which have ensue in millions of dollar ’ worth of ransom payment . Matveev is think to live in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad , where he remain tantalizingly cheeseparing yet just out of reach of the authorities .
North Korean hackers had a busy year stealing crypto for nukes
drudge for the hermit kingdom were busybodied than ever this yr , gouge up hack on popular crypto walletsandmajor crypto projectswith the design of making as much money for the government fromanywhereit can get it to fund its sanctioned atomic weapons programme .
Some of the cyberattacks linked to North Korea might not have made much sense on the cheek of it , but break into software companies give the hackers access to the targets they were after . go-ahead phone provider 3CX said thatNorth Korean hackers broke into its systemsand planted malware in a tainted package update that roll out to client in a retentive - game effort to place 3CX ’s crypto customer . Software companyJumpCloud say it too was hackedby North Korean hackers , likely in an effort to get together data point on a handful of its crypto - touch customer .
The FBI warn earlier this year thatNorth Korean hack were fix to cash outsome of their late crypto stickup .
Meet the card checker blamed for massive credit card fraud scheme
It took the feds about a decade but their perseverance paid off when they finally identified the mastermind behind Try2Check , a cite card see mathematical operation that allow criminals who purchase credit card numbers in bulk to place which cards are still active . The strategy earned the Russian interior , Denis Gennadievich Kulkov , more than $ 18 million in illicit proceeds — anda position on the U.S. Secret Service ’s most wanted listwith a $ 10 million premium for information leading to Kulkov ’s sentence . That might not be any fourth dimension soon , given Kulkov rest in Russia and squarely out of the hands of U.S. prosecutors .
How the feds catch a notorious credit wit fraudster
Cybercrime forum boss busted for hacking, fraud — and child abuse
A fecund hacker and seller of stolen information , the executive of the cybercrime forum BreachForums cognise as Pompompurin , was busted on home turf by the FBI in a leafy town in upstate New York . BreachForums for a fourth dimension was involved in thesale of millions of multitude ’s datawith more than 340,000 active member , to the power point wherethe Justice Department sought to “ interrupt ” the site to knock it offline . The operation saw the hitch of Conor Brian Fitzpatrick , 20 , following an extensive surveillance mental process . In the end it was n’t just charge of electronic computer hacking and wire hoax that convey down the notorious hacking forum administrator , but also possession of child abuse mental imagery . Fitzpatrick subsequentlypleaded guiltyand will be sentenced at a later date .
FBI took a bite out of Qakbot, a mere setback for the prolific malware gang
Qakbot was one of the longest - running play and high - profile hacking groups of the past decade , and once the malware - of - choice for delivering ransomware to company , organizations and governments around the world , generating tens of millions of dollars in ransom payments . At its peak , the FBI said Qakbot had compromise more than 700,000 devices as of June 2023 , with at least 200,000 hack devices located in the United States . In a daring effort to tap the malware offline for skillful , the FBI launched Operation Duck Hunt(don’t saythattoo cursorily ) , which tricked Qakbot - infected computers into download an FBI - made uninstaller , ridding the malware from the infected twist . The operation was hailed as a success . But late Qakbot infections propose that the takedownwas little more than a unforesightful setback .
Teen hacker detained indefinitely due to ongoing risk to the public
In what is likely the last cyber - related conviction of the yr : A cyberpunk impeach of involvement with the prolific Lapsus$ hack chemical group will be detain until doctors determine he no longer poses a menace to the populace . Arion Kurtaj , a teenager from Oxford , was sentence to an indefinite infirmary society in December , report the BBC . Kurtaj is one of several hackers who raided Rockstar Games , Uber , Nvidia and telecommunication elephantine EE who used social technology and threats to score access to embodied electronic web . The judge sound out the teenager ’s skills and want to keep on committing cybercrime think of he remains a high risk to the public .
Arion Kurtaj has been given an indefinite hospital social club . evaluator rules that he remains a high risk to the world through his skill and motivating . He will remain at a unattackable infirmary for life unless doctors deem him no longer a danger .
— Joe Tidy ( @joetidy)December 21 , 2023
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