Extortion | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The financially motivated threat actor known as Storm-0501 has been observed refining its tactics to conduct data exfiltration and extortion attacks targeting cloud environments. "Unlike traditional on-premises ransomware, where the threat actor typically deploys malware to encrypt critical files across endpoints within the compromised network and then negotiates for a decryption key, cloud-based ransomware introduces a fundamental shift," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Leveraging cloud-native capabilities, Storm-0501 rapidly exfiltrates large volumes of data, destroys data and backups within the victim environment, and demands ransom -- all without relying on traditional malware deployment." Storm-0501 was first documented by Microsoft almost a year ago, detailing its hybrid cloud ransomware attacks targeting government, manufacturing, transportation, and law enforcement sectors in the U.S., with the thr...

A 57-year-old man from the U.S. state of Missouri has been arrested in connection with a failed data extortion campaign that targeted his former employer. Daniel Rhyne of Kansas City, Missouri, has been charged with one count of extortion in relation to a threat to cause damage to a protected computer, one count of intentional damage to a protected computer, and one count of wire fraud. He was arrested in the state on August 27, 2024, following an attempt to extort an unnamed industrial company that's headquartered in Somerset County, New Jersey, where he was employed as a core infrastructure engineer. Per court documents, some employees of the company are said to have received an extortion email that warned all of its IT administrators had been locked out or removed from the network, data backups had been deleted, and an additional 40 servers would be shut down each day over the next 10 days if a ransom of 20 bitcoin, then valued at $750,000, wasn't paid. "The inves...

Crypto exchange Kraken revealed that an unnamed security researcher exploited an "extremely critical" zero-day flaw in its platform to steal $3 million in digital assets and refused to return them. Details of the incident were shared by Kraken's Chief Security Officer, Nick Percoco, on X (formerly Twitter), stating it received a Bug Bounty program alert from the researcher about a bug that "allowed them to artificially inflate their balance on our platform" without sharing any other details Within minutes of receiving the alert, the company said it identified a security issue that essentially permitted an attacker to "initiate a deposit onto our platform and receive funds in their account without fully completing the deposit." While Kraken emphasized that no client assets were at risk due to the issue, it could have enabled a threat actor to print assets in their accounts. The problem was addressed within 47 minutes, it said. It also said the fl...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered 18  malicious loan apps  for Android on the Google Play Store that have been collectively downloaded over 12 million times. "Despite their attractive appearance, these services are in fact designed to defraud users by offering them high-interest-rate loans endorsed with deceitful descriptions, all while collecting their victims' personal and financial information to blackmail them, and in the end gain their funds," ESET  said . The Slovak cybersecurity company is tracking these apps under the name  SpyLoan , noting they are designed to target potential borrowers located in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The list of apps, which have now been taken down by Google, is below - AA Kredit: इंस्टेंट लोन ऐप (com.aa.kredit.android) Amor Cash: Préstamos Sin Buró (com.amorcash.credito.prestamo) Oro Préstamo - Efectivo rápido (com.app.lo.go) Cashwow (com.cashwow.cow.eg) CrediBus Préstamos de crédito (com.dinero.prof...