A cybercrime-focused division of the US Department of Homeland Security says it has disrupted more than 500 ransomware attacks and seized billions of dollars in cryptocurrency since 2021.
The ongoing effort from Homeland Security Investigations, which investigates cybercrime and illicit transnational activity, involves proactively notifying government agencies, companies and other potential victims that an extortion event is imminent, said Mike Prado, deputy assistant director of HSI’s Cyber Crimes Center.
Read more…
Source: Bloomberg News
Related:
- DHS Orders Federal Agencies to Patch Critical Flaws Within 15 Days
May 1, 2019
In recent years, we have seen how hackers prey on those too lazy or ignorant to install security patches, which, if applied on time, would have prevented some devastating cyber attacks and data breaches that happened in major organisations. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ordered government agencies to more swiftly plug the ...
- Unprotected Database Exposes Personal Info of 80 Million American Households
April 30, 2019
A team of security researchers has claims to have found a publicly-accessible database that exposes information on more than 80 million U.S. households—nearly 65 percent of the total number of American households. Discovered by VPNMentor’s research team lead by hacktivists Noam Rotem and Ran Locar, the unsecured database includes 24GB of extremely detailed information about individual ...
- EU: No evidence of Kaspersky spying despite ‘confirmed malicious’ classification
April 16, 2019
In a document published today, the European Commission has revealed that they don’t have any actual evidence of Kaspersky software being used for spying on behalf of the Russian government, as the US government alluded in 2017. The document was the Commission’s reply to a series of questions submitted by Gerolf Annemans, a European Parliament member on behalf ...
- Mystery of the Chinese woman who allegedly tried to sneak into Trump’s Mar-a-Lago with a USB stick of malware
April 2, 2019
A Chinese woman was caught sneaking into President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club with a thumb drive of malware, it was claimed yesterday. Yujing Zhang, 32, was collared after possibly trying to slip into a bash at the swanky resort promoted by Li “Cindy” Yang, the former massage parlor boss who denies allegations she sold access to the president and his ...
- U.S. hackers helped UAE spy on Al Jazeera chairman, BBC host
April 1, 2019
A group of American hackers who once worked for U.S. intelligence agencies helped the United Arab Emirates spy on a BBC host, the chairman of Al Jazeera and other prominent Arab media figures during a tense 2017 confrontation pitting the UAE and its allies against the Gulf state of Qatar. The American operatives worked for Project ...
- FBI arrests second Apophis Squad hacker in the US
February 13, 2019
The FBI arrested yesterday a hacker part of a hacking team known as Apophis Squad. This is the second arrest of an Apophis Squad member after UK cops arrested a teenager in August 2018. The two, US and UK citizens, respectively, have been charged in an indictment unsealed by the US Department of Justice yesterday. They stand ...