A Missouri man, Daniel Rhyne, was arrested for attempting to extort his former employer, a New Jersey-based industrial company. Rhyne, a former core infrastructure engineer for the company, allegedly sent an extortion email on Nov. 25, 2023, claiming to have locked out or deleted the company’s IT administrators from its computer network and deleted server…
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A Russian cybercriminal, Deniss Zolotarjovs, has been charged in the U.S. with crimes related to his involvement in a cybercrime organization known for extorting victims and laundering cryptocurrency. The 33-year-old Moscow resident was indicted in Cincinnati, Ohio, on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud, and Hobbs Act extortion. Arrested in Georgia in…
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Selangor police in Malaysia are pursuing four local suspects connected to the July 11 kidnapping of a Chinese national and a Malaysian woman near the Lebuharaya Maju Toll Plaza in Cyberjaya. Selangor Police Chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan disclosed that three men and a woman remain at large, while 14 others involved have been apprehended…
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A Russian crypto entrepreneur, charged with laundering money from ransomware attacks, has been sentenced to probation and fined in the U.S. after pleading guilty. Founder of two coin trading platforms, Denis Dubnikov, was arrested in the Netherlands and extradited to the U.S. last year.
Oregon Court Sentences Russian for Processing Ryuk Payments
A Russian…
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Since December 2022, the two malicious files — MortalKombat ransomware and Laplas Clipper malware — have been actively scouting the internet and stealing cryptocurrencies from unwary investors. Anti-malware software Malwarebytes highlighted two new malicious computer programs propagated by unknown sources actively targeting crypto investors in a desktop environment. Since December 2022, the two malicious files…
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A Russian national accused of processing cryptocurrency payments from ransomware attacks has pleaded guilty to money laundering in the United States. The man who was extradited from the Netherlands in mid-August, last year, will be sentenced in April. Russian Crypto Launderer Pleads Guilty in US Court, May Get Up to 20 Years in Prison An…
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Law enforcement authorities from over a dozen countries in Europe and North America have taken part in disrupting the activities of the Hive ransomware group, the U.S. Justice Department and Europol announced. Hive is believed to have targeted various organizations worldwide in the past couple of years, often extorting payments in cryptocurrency. Captured Decryption Keys…
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A hospital in Romania has been targeted in a ransomware attack with the perpetrators seeking payment in cryptocurrency to decrypt its database. The hack prevents the medical institution from reporting to the country’s health insurance fund in order to receive due funding. Botoşani Hospital Blackmailed for Bitcoin, Romanian Media Reports The Saint Gheorghe Recovery Hospital…
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The Ransom Disclosure Act aims to help the Department of Homeland Security gather critical data on ransom payments in cryptocurrency and fiat. As cryptocurrency adoption continues apace in the United States, lawmakers want to better understand how it’s used — for both legal and illegal purposes. The Ransom Disclosure Act, introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren…
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As seen in the case of AA v. Bitfinex, targeting a crypto exchange over stolen funds is a high-risk, low-reward proposition. In October 2019, unknown hackers infiltrated a Canadian insurance company by installing the malware BitPaymer, which encrypted the firm’s data and IT systems. The hackers demanded a ransom of $1.2 million be paid in…
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