Tag Archive for: case

Former Amazon Security Engineer Sentenced to Three Years in Crypto Hacking Case

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U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero of the Southern District of New York on Friday sentenced former Amazon security engineer Shakeeb Ahmed to three years in prison in connection with a cryptocurrency hacking scheme.

Ahmed, 34, pleaded guilty to one count of computer fraud in December, acknowledging that he hacked two crypto exchanges and stole more than $12 million in cryptocurrency in the summer of 2022. He was ordered to forfeit about $12.3 million and pay more than $5 million in restitution.

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Chinese authorities arrest four in ransomware case involving ChatGPT

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Four alleged cyberattackers have been arrested in mainland China for developing ransomware with the help of ChatGPT, the first case of its sort in the country.

The South China Morning Post reported Friday that the suspects were arrested in November following a ransomware attack on an unidentified company in Zhenjiang Province, just south of Shanghai. The ransomware attack reportedly blocked the company’s systems with a ransom of 20,000 Tether ($20,000) demanded to restore access.

Upon arrest, the four accused admitted to “writing versions of ransomware, optimizing the program with the help of ChatGPT, conducting vulnerability scans, gaining access through infiltration, implanting ransomware and carrying out extortion.”

ChatGPT is banned in China, blocked by the country’s firewall and censorship regime because it can discuss verboten topics. The country has at various times announced crackdowns on citizens trying to access the service, but access is only a virtual private network away, be it the government tries to block VPNs as well.

The SCMP notes that it’s not clear whether the accused were charged over illegally accessing ChatGPT. In a separate report, China’s Global Times says that four accused possessed qualifications related to network security and had previous experience working for large-scale internet technology companies. The suggestion is that ChatGPT was simply used as a tool as part of the ransomware operation versus being key to the attack.

The arrests are not the first time ChatGPT has been involved in an arrest in China. A man arrested in Gansu Province in May allegedly generated a fake story about a train crash using ChatGPT.

The fake story alleged that nine construction workers in a city in Gansu had been killed in a train crash, with the story spreading across 25 social media accounts before being intercepted by China’s censorship regime. The man was arrested for concocting false information.

Chinese companies are developing homegrown rivals to ChatGPT. The most notable among them is Baidu Inc., the “Google of China,” which disclosed last week that its Ernie Bot service, revealed in March, has now surpassed more than 100 million…

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Blackbaud Settles Ransomware Breach Case For $49.5m

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Software provider Blackbaud has reached a multimillion-dollar agreement with 49 states over charges connected to a massive 2020 ransomware breach which impacted 13,000 non-profit customers.

Blackbaud first revealed the incident in July 2020, but attorneys general in dozens of US states subsequently took legal action against the firm after claiming it had concealed the extent of the breach and the volume of records taken.

These included Social Security numbers, healthcare information and financial details related to donors of many of Blackbaud’s charity customers. Over one million files were ultimately compromised by threat actors in the breach.

The South Carolina-based firm, which produces software to help non-profits raise funds and manage data, paid its extortionists in return for ‘assurances’ that they had deleted the stolen data. It’s a move that was heavily criticized by security experts at the time, as there’s a strong probability in such cases that threat actors may end up monetizing the data in any case.

Blackbaud has already been forced to settle in a separate case, paying $3m to the SEC after the regulator alleged that the firm’s staff had misled investors about the impact of the ransomware breach.

Read more on Blackbaud: Blackbaud Breach Hits Nine More Universities.

Under the terms of the new agreement, Blackbaud will accept no wrongdoing for the incident. However, it has agreed to fortify its data security, improve customer notification if another breach occurs and have a third party assess compliance with the terms of the settlement for a seven-year period.

The settlement funds will be paid by the end of October.

Among Blackbaud’s extensive client list, compromised organizations included hospitals, charities, religious organizations and numerous universities both in and outside the US.

These include University College Oxford, the University of London, Canada’s Ambrose University, the University of York, the Rhode Island School of Design, Human Rights Watch and mental health charity Young Minds.

Editorial image credit: Pavel Kapysh / Shutterstock.com

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Ombudsman reveals hacking of case records, plans fortifying IT system

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 12) — Hackers have breached the computer network of the Office of the Ombudsman, allowing parties to some cases to learn about the decisions before they are released.

Ombudsman Samuel Martires told lawmakers Monday that the hacking issue was so serious that he advised lawyers in the office against using the local internet connection.

Martires said employees from the Ombudsman’s management information system division have been placed on preventive suspension due to the hack.

“Itong taon po na ito, nadiskubre namin na na-hack ‘yung aming system. ‘Yung mga may kaso pala sa amin, kaya pala alam nila kung nasaan na ang kanilang mga kaso kasi tatlong tao ang nakatingin sa aming firewall. Hindi ho biro ang alam po ng respondent na ginagawa pa lang ‘yung decision may nakakakita na,” he said.

[Translation: Earlier this year, we found out that our system was hacked. They knew the status of their cases because three people had access to our firewall. It’s a serious matter because while we’re still working on the decision, the respondent can already see it.]

Martires said he is in talks with Estonia to acquire security software that would protect the Ombudsman against future cyberattacks.

His office, meanwhile, plans to buy new computer hardware.

“I am trying to save more because of our plan to buy more hardware para sa aming [for our] IT, and which the software will be provided by a foreign country,” Martires said.

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