Hacker cop facing more charges after breaking into women’s social media accounts, sharing photos
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Additional charges filed in hacking case against Former Mount Laurel police officer – Trentonian
Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw and Evesham Township Police Chief Walt Miller have announced that a former Mount Laurel police officer who was charged in October with hacking into the social media accounts of an Evesham woman and distributing her nude pictures has been charged with victimizing multiple other women in a similar manner.
Ayron Taylor, 22, of Delran, was taken into custody on Nov. 30 and released Dec. 2 following a first appearance in Superior Court in Mount Holly. The case will now be prepared for presentation to a grand jury for possible indictment.
Taylor faces 87 new charges that accuse him of illegally accessing the social media and email accounts of 18 additional women and in several instances distributing their nude photos to people on their contact lists. The complaints allege 28 counts of second-degree crimes that include Computer Criminal Activity and Distribution of Child Pornography, which was brought against him because some of the photos he accessed were taken before the victims became legal adults. The remaining 59 counts are third degree charges including Elements of Computer Theft and other cyber-related crimes.
The investigation began in September after the initial victim contacted Evesham Township police to report that her Snapchat and Facebook accounts had been hacked by an unknown person who then sent nude photos she had taken of herself to her Snapchat contacts, messaged them to her Facebook friends, and posted them on her Facebook wall.
The investigation determined the commonality among all victims was that each one had a student email account through Rowan College of Burlington County (RCBC). The investigation further determined that Taylor illegally accessed more than 2,800 RCBC email accounts. Some of this activity occurred while he was on duty and sitting in his patrol car, utilizing personal electronic devices.
Taylor became a full-time officer in Mount Laurel after graduating from the police academy in October 2021. The department suspended him following the initial charges and began measures to terminate his employment. He has since resigned from the force.
RCBC officials have been cooperative with law enforcement…
FTX Collapse Worsens After a $600 Million Hack And Criminal Charges
Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX confirmed an authorized hack that potentially drained about $600 million out of the exchange’s wallets.
Key Takeaways
- Bankrupt FTX remains troubled after hackers siphoned $600 million from the exchange.
- The new CEO and chief restructuring officer of the beleaguered cryptocurrency exchange, John Jay Ray III, pauses crypto withdrawal to mitigate the effect of the hack.
- The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) places Sam Bankman-Fried under scrutiny. The crypto exchange is facing criminal charges in the Bahamas.
Binance Comes For Rescue
The attack took place in the late hours of Friday night after FTX‘s bankruptcy filing.
“FTX has been hacked. FTX apps are malware. Delete them. Chat is open. Don’t go on FTX site as it might download Trojans,” wrote an account administrator in the FTX Support Telegram group.
Hours later, FTX General Counsel Ryne Miller tweeted that the crypto exchange was making ”every effort to secure all assets, wherever located.”
To help FTX’s projects from a liquidity crisis, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced on Monday an “Industry recovery fund” to reduce the “cascading negative effects of FTX” that helps projects with a solid foundation and structure but experiencing a liquidity crisis to outlive. The fund details should come soon, said the CEO.
FTX Under Security Scrutiny
The FTX woes don’t end here as the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), alongside Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), is currently probing the integrity of the FTX exchange on whether it mismanaged users’ funds and what’s the relationship between FTX.com and FTX.US, according to a report by Bloomberg. In addition, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has placed the entity under scrutiny and is investigating the issue of possible fraud.
Furthermore, in the Bahamas, where Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX is headquartered, police and the securities regulator are investigating the possibility of criminal activity.
Crypto Chaos Continues
Twitter isn’t silent, and has been a go-to source for real-time updates on the chaotic FTX saga even the CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk, noted this, saying, “FTX…
US charges Ukrainian national over alleged role in Raccoon Infostealer malware operation • TechCrunch
U.S. officials have charged a Ukrainian national over his alleged role in the Raccoon Infostealer malware-as-a-service operation that infected millions of computers worldwide.
Mark Sokolovsky — also known online as “raccoonstealer,” according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday — is currently being held in the Netherlands while waiting to be extradited to the United States.
The U.S. Department of Justice accused Sokolovsky of being one of the “key administrators” of the Raccoon Infostealer, a form of Windows malware that steals passwords, credit card numbers, saved username and password combinations, and granular location data.
Raccoon Infostealer was leased to individuals for approximately $200 per month, the DOJ said, which was paid to the malware’s operators in cryptocurrency, typically Bitcoin. These individuals employed various tactics, such as COVID-19-themed phishing emails and malicious web pages, to install the malware onto the computers of unsuspecting victims. The malware then stole personal data from their computers, including login credentials, bank account details, cryptocurrency addresses, and other personal information, which were used to commit financial crimes or sold to others on cybercrime forums.
An example of one of the phishing emails sent by the crime group. Image Credits: U.S. Justice Department.
According to U.S. officials, the malware stole more than 50 million unique credentials and forms of identification from victims around the world since February 2019. These victims include a financial technology company based in Texas and an individual who had access to U.S. Army information systems, according to the unsealed indictment. Cybersecurity firm Group-IB said the malware may have been used to steal employee credentials during the recent Uber breach.
But the DOJ said it “does not believe it is in possession of all the data stolen by Raccoon Infostealer and continues to investigate.”
The Justice Department said it worked with European law enforcement to dismantle the IT infrastructure powering Raccoon Infostealer in March 2022, when Dutch authorities arrested Sokolovsky. According to one report, the malware…