Fake Investor John Bernard Sinks Norwegian Green Shipping Dreams
Several articles here have delved into the history of John Bernard, the pseudonym used by a fake billionaire technology investor who tricked dozens of startups into giving him tens of…
Who Wrote the ALPHV/BlackCat Ransomware Strain?
In December 2021, researchers discovered a new ransomware-as-a-service named ALPHV (a.k.a. “BlackCat“), considered to be the first professional cybercrime group to create and use a ransomware strain written in the…
Scary Fraud Ensues When ID Theft & Usury Collide
What’s worse than finding out that identity thieves took out a 546 percent interest payday loan in your name? How about a 900 percent interest loan? Or how about not…
Crime Shop Sells Hacked Logins to Other Crime Shops
Up for the “Most Meta Cybercrime Offering” award this year is Accountz Club, a new cybercrime store that sells access to purloined accounts at services built for cybercriminals, including shops…
IRS Will Soon Require Selfies for Online Access
If you created an online account to manage your tax records with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), those login credentials will cease to work later this year. The agency…
500M Avira Antivirus Users Introduced to Cryptomining
Many readers were surprised to learn recently that the popular Norton 360 antivirus suite now ships with a program which lets customers make money mining virtual currency. But Norton 360…
Norton 360 Now Comes With a Cryptominer
Norton 360, one of the most popular antivirus products on the market today, has installed a cryptocurrency mining program on its customers’ computers. Norton’s parent firm says the cloud-based service…
Inside Ireland’s Public Healthcare Ransomware Scare
The consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers recently published lessons learned from the disruptive and costly ransomware attack in May 2021 on Ireland’s public health system. The unusually candid post-mortem found that nearly…
Hoax Email Blast Abused Poor Coding in FBI Website
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed today that its fbi.gov domain name and Internet address were used to blast out thousands of fake emails about a cybercrime investigation. According…
SMS About Bank Fraud as a Pretext for Voice Phishing
Most of us have probably heard the term “smishing” — which is a portmanteau for traditional phishing scams sent through SMS text messages. Smishing messages usually include a link to…