This post contains some exceprts of this website before it’s migration from Blogger in 2019. Some of these posts were short and a bit old but still representative of the type of cases that we frequently see.
Man gets four-year prison sentence for UK movie-streaming site A Northern Ireland man has been sentenced to four years for running a piracy streaming website called FastPassTV, as well as related sites that linked to pirated content. Derry resident Paul Mahoney, 29, pled guilty to conspiracy to defraud, acquiring criminal property, and concealing criminal property, according to the Derry Journal. “Offending such as this affects everyone in society at the end of the day although primarily the interests of those involved in film production, the results of which we all enjoy,” said Judge Philip Babington, of Derry Crown Court. Two years of Mahoney’s sentence will be spent in jail, while another two will be “on license,” similar to parole in the US.
Bitcoin cyberextortionists are blackmailing banks, corporations A number of large UK corporations and institutions, such as Lloyds Bank and BAE systems, have reported a “marked increase” in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks from the Bitcoin extortionist group DD4BC, which has been operational since last year. The increased aggressions appears concurrent with reports from other organisations. A cybersecurity case study released by Akamaiidentified 114 DD4BC attacks against the company’s customers since April 2015, with 41 cases taking place in June alone. In comparison, there were only 5 attacks in January and February 2015. “The latest attacks—focused primarily on the financial service industry—involved new strategies and tactics intended to harass, extort and ultimately embarrass the victim publicly,” said Akamai Security Division executive Stuart Scholly in a press release. 58% of DD4BC’s targets are financial institutions, according to Akamai. The group begins with ransom emails that state their demands, which vary anywhere between 1 and 100 bitcoins (about £160 to £16,000), a deadline for compliance, and warning of a “small, demonstrative attack.” Should the victim prove uncooperative, the figure is raised and a more forceful show of force is made. This technique is particularly effective against financial institutions as DD4BC threatens to publicise their attacks, negating the institution’s reputation and trustworthiness.
Man who helped code highly destructive financial malware pleads guilty The Latvian man accused of helping create the Gozi virus, which United States prosecutors dubbed “one of the most financially destructive computer viruses in history,” has pleaded guilty. As the original indictment stated: “The Gozi Virus has caused, at a minimum, millions of dollars in losses.” According to Reuters, Deniss Calovskis made the admission in federal court in Manhattan on Friday.