'Rex Mundi' Hacker Extortion Group: Busted

Mathew J. Schwartz • June 18, 2018

Cyber extortion group Rex Mundi has been shut down following the arrest of seven suspects in France and a French national in Thailand, police say. Investigators began pursuing the group last year after it stole customer data from a British firm and demanded $770,000 to not publicly release it.

Anti-Malware

Era of the eBay-Like Underground Markets Is Ending

Latest

Cybercrime

Massive CIA Hacking Tool Leak: Ex-Agency Employee Charged

Mathew J. Schwartz • June 19, 2018

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged a former CIA officer, 29-year-old Joshua A. Schulte, with providing 8,000 documents that describe the agency's offensive malware tools and practices to WikiLeaks, which published them in 2017 as the "Vault 7" archive.

Breach Notification

PageUp: No Sign of Data Exfiltration

Jeremy Kirk • June 19, 2018

Human resources software developer PageUp says it doesn't appear that personal data exposed in a malware attack was actually removed from its systems. But it has also found authentication error logs that recorded incorrect login attempts from before 2007.

Data Breach

Data Breach Trends: Attackers' Dwell Time Deceases, Mostly

Mathew J. Schwartz • June 18, 2018

There's data breach good news and bad news for organizations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, says Mike Trevett of FireEye's Mandiant. In general, attackers are dwelling in networks for less time before being discovered, except for some particularly long-lasting breaches in EMEA.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Insurance: How Underwriting Is Changing

Nick Holland • June 18, 2018

Cybersecurity insurers, faced with growing demand, are looking for new ways to better measure their risks, says Aleksandr Yampolskiy, CEO of SecurityScorecard. So some are moving toward more carefully scrutinizing the cybersecurity postures of their potential clients.

Breach Notification

PageUp Breach: Job Winners Hit Hardest

Jeremy Kirk • June 15, 2018

Nearly three weeks after human resources software vendor PageUp discovered malware on its system, the tally of what data was exposed remains unclear, although successful job applicants appear to have been hardest hit.

Breach Notification

Dixons Carphone Breach: 5.9 Million Payment Cards Exposed

Mathew J. Schwartz • June 13, 2018

The U.K.'s Dixons Carphone is investigating a data breach that resulted in the suspected exposure of 5.9 million payment cards and nonfinancial information for 1.2 million customers. The incident could become the first U.K. breach to fall under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation.

Anti-Malware

Banco de Chile Loses $10 Million in SWIFT-Related Attack

Jeremy Kirk • June 13, 2018

Banco de Chile has become the latest victim of a SWIFT-related malware incident. Attackers first corrupted thousands of PCs' master boot records as a distraction. Then they used fraudulent SWIFT messages to steal $10 million.

Breach Notification

PageUp Breach: Personal Data Exposed

Jeremy Kirk • June 12, 2018

PageUp, an HR software developer in Australia with clients worldwide, is warning that malware-wielding attackers may have accessed a raft of personal data stored in its systems. The breach may be the largest to have hit Australia since its mandatory data breach notification law went into effect in February.

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

74 Arrests in Business Email Compromise Takedown

Howard Anderson , Nick Holland • June 11, 2018

A six-month coordinated global law enforcement effort to crack down on business email compromise schemes has resulted in 74 arrests, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.

Cyberwarfare / Nation-state attacks

US Imposes More Russian Sanctions for Cyberattacks

Nick Holland • June 11, 2018

The U.S. Treasury Department announced Monday that it has imposed sanctions on five Russian organizations and three individuals, the latest move by the Trump administration in response to Russian cyberattacks.

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

Analysis: Swiping Cryptocurrencies Through a Back Door

Nick Holland • June 8, 2018

Leading the latest edition of the ISMG Security Report: Our exclusive report on an Australian criminal investigation into a company that apparently swiped cryptocurrency using a software backdoor. Also, cutting through the hype on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Breach Notification

HR Service Provider PageUp Discloses Data Breach

Jeremy Kirk • June 7, 2018

Australian HR service provider PageUp, which serves a variety organizations worldwide, says malicious software on its systems may have compromised client data as well as usernames and passwords. PageUp believes systems that store documents, resumes and employment contracts are not affected.