You open up your laptop and check the daily news. You see a headline stating that one of your favorite online retailers was breached and that thousands of their customers’ passwords were exposed. Data breaches like this frequently appear in the news, but many consumers don’t realize the implications these breaches have on their personal privacy. When data breaches occur, oftentimes billions of these hacked login credentials become available on the dark web, neatly packaged for criminals to download.1  Let’s dive into the differences between the deep web and the dark web, how cybercriminals…

You open up your laptop and check the daily news. You see a headline stating that one of your favorite online retailers was breached and that thousands of their customers’ passwords were exposed. Data breaches like this frequently appear in the news, but many consumers don’t realize the implications these breaches have on their personal privacy. When data breaches occur, oftentimes billions of these hacked login credentials become available on the dark web, neatly packaged for criminals to download.1  Let’s dive into the differences between the deep web and the dark web, how cybercriminals…

European police have identified over 18,000 money mules and arrested 1800 in a significant crackdown on money laundering. Some 27 countries took part in the seventh European Money Mule Action (EMMA 7), which ended yesterday, according to Europol. The two-and-a-half-month initiative saw police from these jurisdictions, along with Europol and Eurojust, work with the European Banking Federation (EBF), the FinTech FinCrime Exchange and private sector firms such as Western Union, Microsoft and Fourthline. The aim was…

A Russian man has been sentenced to five years behind bars for his part in a bulletproof hosting venture that helped support countless cybercrime operations. Aleksandr Grichishkin, 34, and co-conspirators Pavel Stassi, 30, of Estonia, Aleksandr Skorodumov, 33, of Lithuania, and 34-year-old Russian, Andrei Skvortsov, had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in a racketeer-influenced corrupt organization. Grichishkin is purportedly the organization’s founder, which rented out IP addresses, servers and domains to cyber-criminals, who…

Researchers have recorded a 935% year-on-year increase in double extortion attacks, with data from over 2300 companies posted onto ransomware extortion sites. Group-IB’s Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2021/2022 report covers the period from the second half of 2020 to the first half of 2021. During that time, an “unholy alliance” of initial access brokers and ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) affiliate programs has led to a surge in breaches, it claimed. In total, the number of breach victims on ransomware data…