Chainalysis | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Wednesday said it dismantled what it described as "likely the world's largest botnet ever," which consisted of an army of 19 million infected devices that was leased to other threat actors to commit a wide array of offenses. The botnet, which has a global footprint spanning more than 190 countries , functioned as a residential proxy service known as 911 S5 . A 35-year-old Chinese national, YunHe Wang, was arrested in Singapore on May 24, 2024, for creating and acting as the primary administrator of the illegal platform from 2014 to July 2022. Wang has been charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud, substantive computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted on all counts, Wang faces a maximum penalty of 65 years in prison. The Justice Department said the botnet was used to carry out cyber attacks, financial fraud, identity theft, child exploitation, harassment, bo

Threat actors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) are increasingly targeting the cryptocurrency sector as a  major revenue generation mechanism  since at least 2017 to get around sanctions imposed against the country. "Even though movement in and out of and within the country is heavily restricted, and its general population is isolated from the rest of the world, the regime's ruling elite and its highly trained cadre of computer science professionals have privileged access to new technologies and information," cybersecurity firm Recorded Future  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. "The privileged access to resources, technologies, information, and sometimes international travel for a small set of selected individuals with promise in mathematics and computer science equips them with the necessary skills for conducting cyber attacks against the cryptocurrency industry." The disclosure comes as the U.S. Treasury Department  imp

As a vCISO, you are responsible for your client's cybersecurity strategy and risk governance. This incorporates multiple disciplines, from research to execution to reporting. Recently, we published a comprehensive playbook for vCISOs, "Your First 100 Days as a vCISO – 5 Steps to Success" , which covers all the phases entailed in launching a successful vCISO engagement, along with recommended actions to take, and step-by-step examples.  Following the success of the playbook and the requests that have come in from the MSP/MSSP community, we decided to drill down into specific parts of vCISO reporting and provide more color and examples. In this article, we focus on how to create compelling narratives within a report, which has a significant impact on the overall MSP/MSSP value proposition.  This article brings the highlights of a recent guided workshop we held, covering what makes a successful report and how it can be used to enhance engagement with your cyber security clients.

A married couple from New York City has pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in connection with the 2016 hack of cryptocurrency stock exchange Bitfinex, resulting in the theft of about 120,000 bitcoin. The development comes more than a year after Ilya Lichtenstein, 35, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 33, were  arrested in February 2022 , following the seizure of roughly 95,000 of the stolen crypto assets that were held by the defendants. The funds were valued at $3.6 billion at the time. Since then, the U.S. government said it has seized another approximately $475 million tied to the breach. "Lichtenstein used a number of advanced hacking tools and techniques to gain access to Bitfinex's network," the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ)  said . "Once inside their systems, Lichtenstein fraudulently authorized more than 2,000 transactions in which 119,754 bitcoin was transferred from Bitfinex to a cryptocurrency wallet in Lichtenstein's control." He is

Ransomware has emerged as the only cryptocurrency-based crime to grow in 2023, with cybercriminals extorting nearly $175.8 million more than they did a year ago, according to findings from Chainalysis. "Ransomware attackers are on pace for their second-biggest year ever, having extorted at least $449.1 million through June," the blockchain analytics firm  said  in a midyear crypto crime report shared with The Hacker News. "If this pace continues, ransomware attackers will extort $898.6 million from victims in 2023, trailing only 2021's $939.9 million." In contrast, crypto scams have pulled in 77% less revenue than they did through June of 2022, largely driven by the abrupt exit of  VidiLook , which paid users VDL tokens in return for watching digital ads that could then be exchanged for large rewards. So have the inflows to illicit addresses associated with malware, darknet markets, child abuse material, and fraud shops. The development, following a  declin

2022 was the year when inflation hit world economies, except in one corner of the global marketplace – stolen data. Ransomware payments fell by over 40% in 2022 compared to 2021. More organisations chose not to pay ransom demands, according to findings by blockchain firm Chainalysis. Nonetheless, stolen data has value beyond a price tag, and in risky ways you may not expect. Evaluating stolen records is what  Lab 1, a new cyber monitoring platform , believes will make a big difference for long-term cybersecurity resilience. Think of data value this way:  Stolen credentials can become future phishing attacks Logins for adult websites are potential extortion attempts Travel and location data are a risk to VIPs and senior leadership, And so on… Hackers could retaliate for non-payment by simply posting their loot to forums where the data will be available for further enrichment and exploitation.  Shining a light on dark places Even though your company may not have suffered a di

BNB Chain, a blockchain linked to the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, disclosed an exploit on a cross-chain bridge that drained around $100 million in digital assets. "There was an exploit affecting the native cross-chain bridge between BNB Beacon Chain (BEP2) and BNB Smart Chain (BEP20 or BSC), known as 'BSC Token Hub,'" it  said  last week. "The exploit was through a sophisticated forging of the low level proof into one common library." According to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, the exploit on the cross-chain bridge " resulted in extra BNB ," prompting a  temporary suspension  of the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). "BNB, which stands for 'Build and Build' (formerly called Binance Coin), is the blockchain gas token that 'fuels' transactions on BNB Chain," Binance  noted  earlier this February. No user funds are said to have been impacted, since the vulnerability in the BSC Token Hub bridge enabled the unknown threat actor

More than $30 million worth of cryptocurrency plundered by the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group from online video game Axie Infinity has been recovered, marking the first time digital assets stolen by the threat actor have been seized. "The seizures represent approximately 10% of the total funds stolen from Axie Infinity (accounting for price differences between time stolen and seized), and demonstrate that it is becoming more difficult for bad actors to successfully cash out their ill-gotten crypto gains," Erin Plante, senior director of investigations at Chainalysis,  said . The development arrives more than five months after the  crypto hack  resulted in the theft of $620 million from the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Ronin Network, with the attackers laundering a majority of the proceeds – amounting to $455 million – through the Ethereum-based cryptocurrency tumbler Tornado Cash. The March 2022 cryptocurrency heist resulted in losses totaling 173,600 ETH wort

An illicit online marketplace known as SSNDOB was taken down in operation led by U.S. law enforcement agencies, the Department of Justice (DoJ) announced Tuesday. SSNDOB trafficked in personal information such as names, dates of birth, credit card numbers, and Social Security numbers of about 24 million individuals in the U.S., generating its operators $19 million in sales revenue. The action saw the seizure of several domains associated with the marketplace — ssndob.ws, ssndob.vip, ssndob.club, and blackjob.biz — in cooperation with authorities from Cyprus and Latvia. According to blockchain analytics firm  Chainalysis , SSNDOB's Bitcoin payment processing system has received nearly $22 million worth of Bitcoin across over 100,000 transactions since April 2015. Furthermore, bitcoin transfers to the tune of more than $100,000 have been unearthed between SSNDOB and  Joker's Stash , another darknet market that specialized in stolen credit card information and voluntarily c