Anna’s Archive claims it obtained metadata for around 256 million tracks and audio files for roughly 86 million songs, totaling close to 300 TB. Reportedly, this represents about 99.9% of Spotify’s catalog and roughly 99.6% of all streams.
Spotify says it has “identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping” and implemented new safeguards. From a security perspective, this incident is a textbook example of how scraping can escalate beyond “just metadata” into industrial‑scale content theft.
Read more…
Source: Malwarebytes Labs
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- COVID-19 blamed for 238% surge in cyberattacks against banks
May 14, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has been connected to a 238% surge in cyberattacks against banks, new research claims. On Thursday, VMware Carbon Black released the third edition of the Modern Bank Heists report, which says that financial organizations experienced a massive uptick in cyberattack attempts between February and April this year — the same months in which COVID-19 began to spread ...
- UK: £1m innovation funding to predict and counter cyber attacks
April 27, 2020
The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) can today announce nearly £1m to further develop technology that predicts and counters cyber-attacks. Three lead organisations, in collaboration with three additional organisations, have been awarded funding in Phase 2 of the DASA ‘Predictive Cyber Analytics’ competition. This work will develop, adapt and merge the novel approaches explored in Phase 1 ...
- Cognizant hit by ‘Maze’ ransomware attack
April 19, 2020
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp on Saturday said it was hit by a “Maze” ransomware cyber attack, resulting in service disruptions for some of its clients. The information technology services provider said it was taking steps to contain the incident, with the help of cyber defense companies, and has also engaged with law enforcement authorities. Ransomware is a ...
- Prague Airport says thwarted several cyber attacks; hospitals also targeted
April 18, 2020
Prague Airport and a regional Czech hospital said on Saturday they had thwarted cyber attacks on their IT networks, reinforcing warnings by the national cyber security watchdog of likely attempts to harm the country’s infrastructure. “Attempted attacks on web pages of the airport were detected in preparatory phases,” the airport’s spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. ...
- Malicious Attackers Target Government and Medical Organizations With COVID-19 Themed Phishing Campaigns
April 14, 2020
Despite prior reporting by various sources indicating that some cyber threat attacker activity may subside in some respects during the COVID-19 pandemic, Unit 42 has observed quite the opposite with regard to COVID-19 themed threats, particularly in the realm of phishing attacks. While the various COVID-19 themed phishing campaigns observed by Unit 42 are numerous, this blog ...
- Travelex Pays $2.3M in Bitcoin to Hackers Who Hijacked Network in January
April 10, 2020
Travelex has paid out $2.3 million in Bitcoin to hackers to regain access to its global network after a malware attack at the new year knocked the global currency exchange offline and crippled its business during the month of January. The move—reported by the Wall Street Journal—may seem counterintuitive, as experts in the past have typically recommended that companies ...