usa
FTC to ban data broker Kochava from selling Americans’ location data
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will ban data broker Kochava and its subsidiary Collective Data Solutions (CDS) from selling location data without consumers’ explicit consent to settle charges brought nearly four years ago. The FTC sued Idaho-based Kochava in August 2022, alleging it collected and sold precise geolocation data from hundreds of millions of mobile devices. […]
US ransomware negotiators get 4 years in prison over BlackCat attacks
Two former employees of cybersecurity incident response companies Sygnia and DigitalMint were sentenced to four years in prison each for targeting U.S. companies in BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware attacks. 40-year-old Ryan Clifford Goldberg (a former Sygnia incident response manager) and 36-year-old Kevin Tyler Martin (a DigitalMint ransomware negotiator) were charged in November and pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to […]
Romanian leader of online swatting ring gets 4 years in prison
A Romanian national who led an online swatting ring that targeted more than 75 public officials, multiple journalists, and four religious institutions was sentenced to 4 years in federal prison. Swatting is a dangerous criminal harassment tactic involving making false reports to emergency responders of an ongoing violent threat at a target’s address to provoke an […]
FBI links cybercriminals to sharp surge in cargo theft attacks
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned the transportation and logistics industry of a sharp rise in cyber-enabled cargo theft, with estimated losses in the United States and Canada reaching nearly $725 million in 2025. This represents a 60% surge in losses compared to the previous year, fueled by criminals increasingly using hacking and […]
US reportedly charges Scattered Spider hacker arrested in Finland
A 19-year-old dual United States and Estonian citizen arrested in Finland earlier this month faces federal charges in the U.S. alleging he was a prolific member of the notorious Scattered Spider hacking collective. According to temporarily unsealed court records obtained by the Chicago Tribune, the suspect (who used the online alias “Bouquet”) helped extort millions of dollars […]
FTC: Americans lost over $2.1 billion to social media scams in 2025
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warned of a massive increase in losses from social media scams since 2020, exceeding $2.1 billion in 2025. According to reports to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network, all age groups (except those 80 and over, who were mainly targeted via phone calls) lost more money to scams originating on […]
British Scattered Spider hacker pleads guilty to crypto theft charges
A British man, believed to be the leader of the Scattered Spider cybercrime collective, has pleaded guilty in the United States to charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. In November 2024, U.S. prosecutors accused 24-year-old Tyler Robert Buchanan and four other suspects of stealing at least $8 million in cryptocurrency after hacking at least a dozen companies […]
Man gets 30 months for selling thousands of hacked DraftKings accounts
23-year-old Kamerin Stokes of Memphis, Tennessee, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for selling access to tens of thousands of hacked DraftKings accounts. According to court documents, the accounts were hijacked by Nathan Austad (aka Snoopy) with the help of Joseph Garrison (a third accomplice charged in May 2023) in a massive November 2022 credential-stuffing attack that compromised nearly 68,000 DraftKings accounts. U.S. prosecutors […]
US nationals behind DPRK IT worker ‘laptop farm’ sent to prison
Two U.S. nationals have been sent to prison for helping North Korean remote information technology (IT) workers to pose as U.S. residents and get hired by over 100 companies across the country, including many Fortune 500 firms. 42-year-old Kejia Wang and 39-year-old Zhenxing Wang were charged in June 2025 following a coordinated law enforcement action against the […]
Over 20,000 crypto fraud victims identified in international crackdown
An international law enforcement action led by the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has identified over 20,000 victims of cryptocurrency fraud across Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Dubbed “Operation Atlantic,” this joint action took place last month, and it involved the NCA, the U.S. Secret Service, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Ontario […]