SIM Swapper Abducted, Beaten, Held for $200k Ransom

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2022 16:17:08 +0000

A Florida teenager who served as a lackey for a cybercriminal group that specializes in cryptocurrency thefts was beaten and kidnapped last week by a rival cybercrime gang. The teen’s captives held guns to his head while forcing him to record a video message pleading with his crew to fork over a $200,000 ransom in exchange for his life. The youth is now reportedly cooperating with U.S. federal investigators, who are responding to an alarming number of reports of physical violence tied to certain online crime communities.

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Botched Crypto Mugging Lands Three U.K. Men in Jail

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2022 17:55:25 +0000

Three men in the United Kingdom were arrested this month after police responding to an attempted break-in at a residence stopped their car as they fled the scene. The authorities found weapons and a police uniform in the trunk, and say the trio intended to assault a local man and force him to hand over virtual currencies. 

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Violence-as-a-Service: Brickings, Firebombings & Shootings for Hire

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2022 14:59:13 +0000

A 21-year-old New Jersey man has been arrested and charged with stalking in connection with a federal investigation into groups of cybercriminals who are settling scores by hiring people to carry out physical attacks on their rivals. Prosecutors say the defendant recently participated in several of these schemes — including firing a handgun into a Pennsylvania home and torching a residence in another part of the state with a Molotov Cocktail.

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Leaked Chats Show LAPSUS$ Stole T-Mobile Source Code

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2022 13:09:39 +0000

KrebsOnSecurity recently reviewed a copy of the private chat messages between members of the LAPSUS$ cybercrime group in the week leading up to the arrest of its most active members last month. The logs show LAPSUS$ breached T-Mobile multiple times in March, stealing source code for a range of company projects. T-Mobile says no customer or government information was stolen in the intrusion. LAPSUS$ is known for stealing data and then demanding a ransom not to publish or sell it. But the leaked chats indicate this mercenary activity was of little interest to the tyrannical teenage leader of LAPSUS$, whose obsession with stealing and leaking proprietary computer source code from the world’s largest tech companies ultimately led to the group’s undoing.

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A Closer Look at the LAPSUS$ Data Extortion Group

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2022 22:00:43 +0000

Microsoft and identity management platform Okta both disclosed this week breaches involving LAPSUS$, a relatively new cybercrime group that specializes in stealing data from big companies and threatening to publish the information unless a ransom demand is paid. Here’s a closer look at LAPSUS$, and some of the low-tech but high-impact methods the group uses to gain access to targeted organizations.

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Europol busts up two SIM-swapping hacking rings

Credit to Author: Lisa Vaas| Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 10:51:21 +0000

What a nightmare: your phone goes dead, and you can’t log into your bank account because it’s controlled by a hacker who’s draining you dry.<img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nakedsecurity/~4/ORrtEW70IY8″ height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=””/>

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Lawmakers Prod FCC to Act on SIM Swapping

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 09 Jan 2020 19:44:55 +0000

Crooks have stolen tens of millions of dollars and other valuable commodities from thousands of consumers via “SIM swapping,” a particularly invasive form of fraud that involves tricking a target’s mobile carrier into transferring someone’s wireless service to a device they control. But the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the entity responsible for overseeing wireless industry practices, has so far remained largely silent on the matter. Now, a cadre of Senate lawmakers is demanding to know what, if anything, the agency might be doing to track and combat SIM swapping.

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Two men busted for hijacking victims’ phones and email accounts

Credit to Author: Lisa Vaas| Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2019 11:17:51 +0000

Prosecutors allege that Meiggs and Harrington took over their targets’ mobile phone and email accounts via SIM-swapping.<img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nakedsecurity/~4/J1Y9CgBcaSw” height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=””/>

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Sextortionist whisks away sex tapes using just a phone number

Credit to Author: Lisa Vaas| Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2019 11:15:39 +0000

The SIM-swap victim knew he was in trouble when he got a 3:30 a.m. message about his phone service being cut off.<img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nakedsecurity/~4/WC2UWpWBTyQ” height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=””/>

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Food writer Jack Monroe loses at least £5,000 in SIM-swap fraud

Credit to Author: Lisa Vaas| Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2019 10:53:52 +0000

Her accounts were drained in spite of using 2FA, showing that SIM swaps can still circumvent what’s a good security tool.<img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nakedsecurity/~4/QJiDHTqtHDo” height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=””/>

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