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The United States Justice Department has unveiled charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with 17 new counts on the alleged violation of the Espionage Act by publishing classified information through WikiLeaks website. If convicted for all counts, Assange could face a maximum sentence of 175 years in U.S. prison for his "alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States." Assange was arrested last month in London after Ecuador abruptly withdrew his asylum and later sentenced to 50 weeks in U.K. prison for breaching his bail conditions in 2012. The 47-year-old is currently facing extradition to the United States for his role in publishing thousands of classified diplomatic and military documents on WikiLeaks in 2010 that embarrassed the U.S. governments across the world. Though the previous indictment charged Assange with just one count of helping former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning c

A Russian hacker indicted by a United States court for his involvement in online ad fraud schemes that defrauded multiple American companies out of tens of millions of dollars pleaded not guilty on Friday in a courtroom in Brooklyn, New York. Aleksandr Zhukov , 38, was arrested in November last year by Bulgarian authorities after the U.S. issued an international warrant against him, and was extradited by Bulgaria to the United States on Thursday (January 18, 2019). He is currently in prison in Brooklyn. In November 2018, law enforcement and multiple security firms collaborated to shut down one of the largest digital ad-fraud schemes, which they dubbed 3ve , that infected over 1.7 million computers worldwide to generate fake clicks used to defraud digital advertisers for years and made tens of millions of dollars in revenue. Pronounced "Eve," the online ad-fraud campaign was believed to have been active since at least 2014, but its fraudulent activity grew last yea

Identities now transcend human boundaries. Within each line of code and every API call lies a non-human identity. These entities act as programmatic access keys, enabling authentication and facilitating interactions among systems and services, which are essential for every API call, database query, or storage account access. As we depend on multi-factor authentication and passwords to safeguard human identities, a pressing question arises: How do we guarantee the security and integrity of these non-human counterparts? How do we authenticate, authorize, and regulate access for entities devoid of life but crucial for the functioning of critical systems? Let's break it down. The challenge Imagine a cloud-native application as a bustling metropolis of tiny neighborhoods known as microservices, all neatly packed into containers. These microservices function akin to diligent worker bees, each diligently performing its designated task, be it processing data, verifying credentials, or

Greece just took another U-turn. Mr. Bitcoin a.k.a. Alexander Vinnik is not going to France nor to the United States; instead, he is now possibly going to his homeland Russia. The Supreme Civil and Criminal Court of Greece on Friday has overruled previous decisions and approved to extradite the alleged owner of the now-defunct Bitcoin cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e Vinnik to Russia. Several Greek courts have previously ruled in favor of all three countries, Russia, France, and the United States, where Vinnik is wanted to face different criminal and hacking charges. Vinnik, 38, has been accused of operating BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange, which was shut down right after his arrest by Greek police in July 2017 at the request of the U.S., where he is convicted for fraud and money laundering more than $4 billion worth amount of Bitcoin (BTC) for criminals involved in hacking attacks, tax fraud, and drug trafficking. Vinnik is also accused to the failure of the once-most famous

British citizen and hacker Lauri Love, who was accused of hacking into United States government websites, will not be extradited to stand trial in the U.S., the High Court of England and Wales ruled today. Love, 33, is facing a 99-year prison sentence in the United States for allegedly carrying out series of cyber attacks against the FBI, US Army, US Missile Defence Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and New York's Federal Reserve Bank between 2012 and 2013. The High Court ruled Monday that Love should be tried in U.K. after Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett of Maldon and Justice Ouseley heard he suffered severe mental illness like Asperger syndrome, eczema, asthma, and depression, and may kill himself if extradited. At Westminster Magistrates' Court in London in late 2016, District Judge Nina Tempia ordered Love to be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial, although his lawyers appealed the decision, arguing that he should be tried for his al

A Greek court has approved the U.S. extradition of a 38-year-old Russian national accused of laundering more than $4 billion in bitcoin for culprits involved in hacking attacks, tax fraud and drug trafficking with the help of the now-defunct BTC-e exchange. Alexander Vinnik , an alleged operator of BTC-e—a digital currency exchange service that has been in operation since 2011 but seized by the authorities right after Vinnik's arrest in a beachside village in northern Greece in late July 2016 at the request of US law enforcement authorities. Since his arrest, Moscow has also requested Vinnik be returned home, as it has previously done with other Russian nationals wanted by the United States. However, the Greek court ruled Wednesday (4 October) to extradite Vinnik to the U.S., where he will face trial on the charges with the operation of an unlicensed money service business, money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and engaging in unlawful monetary transact

Marcel Lazar Lehel aka " Guccifer " – an infamous Romanian hacker who hacked into the emails and social networking accounts of numerous high profile the US and Romanian Politicians – appeared in the United States court for the first time after extradition. Following Romania's top court approval last month, Guccifer was extradited to the United States recently from Romania, his home country, where he had already been serving a hacking sentence. Lehel has been charged with cyber-stalking, unauthorized access to a protected computer and aggravated identity theft in a nine-count indictment filed in 2014 in a federal district court in Alexandria, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement. Lehel "hacked into the email and social media accounts of high-profile victims, including a family member of two former U.S. presidents, a former U.S. Cabinet member, a former member of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former presidential advisor," acc

Internet millionaire and Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and his three associates are eligible for extradition to the US to face criminal charges over massive copyright infringement on Megaupload (now-shuttered), the court has ruled citing " overwhelming " evidence. On Tuesday afternoon, New Zealand District Court Judge Nevin Dawson told the court that the United States had presented enough evidence against Dotcom and his co-defendants and that they should be surrendered to the US. US prosecutors want Dotcom, and colleagues Mathias Ortmann , Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato to stand trial on charges of copyright infringement, racketeering, and money laundering. "No matter what happens in Court tomorrow, I'll be fine. Don't worry. Enjoy your Christmas & know that I'm grateful to have you, my friends," Dotcom  tweeted before the court hearing. The court ruling comes almost three years after the New Zealand police raided Dotcom's

US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden managed to stay out of sight for two weeks since arriving from Hong Kong on June 23, amid rising hopes he may finally be able to leave Russia after being offered asylum by Venezuela. Many travelers, journalists and Agents are trying to spot him, who are waiting in the interconnected transit area between terminals D, E and F, a maze of corridors, lounges, fast food restaurants and duty free shops of Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport. Russia already refuses USA request of Snowden extradition, by saying that he is in transit area where passengers stay between flights is neutral territory and he will be on Russian soil only if he goes through passport control. Snowden may have been kept in a secret area, perhaps underground, or moved around from day to day to avoid detection. Venezuela's leftist President Nicolas Maduro offered to grant " humanitarian asylum ". The invitations came as Snowden sent

A hidden microphone was found in Ecuador's embassy in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is sheltering from extradition to Sweden, The Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino claimed. The microphone was found in the office of the ambassador Ana Alban and was discovered last month during his visit to Britain to discuss issues surrounding Julian Assange. At a press conference in Quito, the foreign minister of Ecuador, held up a photo of a " spy microphone " that was found on June 14 inside a small white box that was placed in an electrical outlet behind a bookshelf. However, the purpose of the bug, according to Patino, was not to track the WikiLeaks founder directly, but rather listen to the conversations of ambassador Ana Alban. He told reporters: " We have reason to believe that the bugging was carried out by The Surveillance Group Limited, one of the largest private investigation and covert surveillance companies in the United Kin

Russian President Vladimir Putin bluntly rejected U.S. pleas to extradite National Security Agency Whistleblower Edward Snowden on Tuesday, says since Snowden has not committed a crime in that country, the government will not extradite him back. Putin said, "Mr. Snowden is a free man," Snowden did not cross the Russian border, implying that he is still in the Moscow airport's transit zone, a sort of diplomatic neutral space. " He arrived as a transit passenger – he didn't need a visa, or other documents, " Putin said. After arriving Sunday on a flight from Hong Kong, Snowden booked a seat on a Havana-bound flight from Moscow on Monday en route to Venezuela and then possible asylum in Ecuador, but he didn't board the plane. " The sooner he selects his final destination point, the better both for us and for himself ," Putin said. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Monday urged Russia to ultimately turn him over. " We do ex