US
US govt says Americans lost record $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said today that Americans lost a record $12.5 billion to fraud last year, a 25% increase over the previous year. Consumers reported that investment scams resulted in the highest losses, totaling around $5.7 billion with a median loss of over $9,000 and exceeding all other fraud categories. The second […]
US cities warn of wave of unpaid parking phishing texts
US cities are warning of an ongoing mobile phishing campaign pretending to be texts from the city’s parking violation departments about unpaid parking invoices, that if unpaid, will incur an additional $35 fine per day. While parking scams have been around for years, a massive wave of phishing text messages has caused numerous cities throughout the US […]
US seizes domain of Garantex crypto exchange used by ransomware gangs
The U.S. Secret Service has seized the domain of the sanctioned Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex in collaboration with the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, the FBI, and Europol. Other law enforcement authorities involved in this action include the Dutch National Police, the German Federal Criminal Police Office, the Frankfurt General Prosecutor’s Office, the Estonian National […]
Fake BianLian ransom notes mailed to US CEOs in postal mail scam
Scammers are impersonating the BianLian ransomware gang in fake ransom notes sent to US companies via snail mail through the United States Postal Service. The fake ransom notes were first reported by Guidepoint Security today, with GeekFeed later being sent a scan of the note from a CEO who received the same letter. The envelopes for these […]
DHS says CISA will not stop monitoring Russian cyber threats
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency says that media reports about it being directed to no longer follow or report on Russian cyber activity are untrue, and its mission remains unchanged. “CISA‘s mission is to defend against all cyber threats to U.S. Critical Infrastructure, including from Russia,” the US cyber agency posted to X. “There has been […]
U.S. recovers $31 million stolen in 2021 Uranium Finance hack
U.S. authorities recovered $31 million in cryptocurrency stolen in 2021 cyberattacks on Uranium Finance, a Binance Smart Chain-based DeFi protocol. Uranium Finance was a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol built on Binance’s BNB Chain that operated as an automated market maker (AMM) similar to Uniswap. The platform launched in April 2021, but hackers quickly exploited vulnerabilities in […]
US drug testing firm DISA says data breach impacts 3.3 million people
DISA Global Solutions, a leading US background screening and drug and alcohol testing firm, has suffered a data breach impacting 3.3 million people. In January, the company first disclosed a cybersecurity incident that occurred between February 9, 2024, and April 22, 2024, the day it discovered the breach. In an update earlier this month, DISA […]
US healthcare org pays $11M settlement over alleged cybersecurity lapses
Health Net Federal Services (HNFS) and its parent company, Centene Corporation, have agreed to pay $11,253,400 to settle allegations that HNFS falsely certified compliance with cybersecurity requirements under its Defense Health Agency (DHA) TRICARE contract. The U.S. government contracted HNFS to provide managed healthcare support services for TRICARE’s North region, covering 22 states. The contract […]
Hacker pleads guilty to SIM swap attack on US SEC X account
Today, an Alabama man pleaded guilty to hijacking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) account on X in a January 2024 SIM swapping attack. This comes after the defendant, 25-year-old Eric Council Jr., first pleaded not guilty to hacking the account and enabling his co-conspirators to make a fake announcement that Bitcoin ETFs were approved. “Today […]
Cyberattack disrupts Lee newspapers’ operations across the US
Lee Enterprises, one of the largest newspaper groups in the United States, says a cyberattack that hit its systems caused an outage last week and impacted its operations. In a Friday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company said the February 3 cyberattack was behind the outage that impacted its business […]