Data Extortion | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Thursday indicted two North Korean nationals, a Mexican national, and two of its own citizens for their alleged involvement in the ongoing fraudulent information technology (IT) worker scheme that seeks to generate revenue for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in violation of international sanctions. The action targets Jin Sung-Il (진성일), Pak Jin-Song (박진성), Pedro Ernesto Alonso De Los Reyes, Erick Ntekereze Prince, and Emanuel Ashtor. Alonso, who resides in Sweden, was arrested in the Netherlands on January 10, 2025, after a warrant was issued. All five defendants have been charged with conspiracy to cause damage to a protected computer, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to transfer false identification documents. Jin and Pak have also been charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. If convicted, each of them faces a ...

Canadian law enforcement authorities have arrested an individual who is suspected to have conducted a series of hacks stemming from the breach of cloud data warehousing platform Snowflake earlier this year. The individual in question, Alexander "Connor" Moucka (aka Judische and Waifu), was apprehended on October 30, 2024, on the basis of a provisional arrest warrant, following a request by the U.S. The development was first reported by Bloomberg and corroborated by 404 Media . The exact nature of the charges against Moucka is currently not known. In June 2024, Snowflake disclosed that a "limited number" of its customers were targeted as part of a targeted campaign. Later, Google-owned Mandiant attributed it to a financially motivated threat group called UNC5537. "UNC5537 comprises members based in North America, and collaborates with an additional member in Turkey," the company assessed with moderate confidence at the time, adding approximately 16...