Tag Archive for: form

FBI to form digital currency unit, Justice Dept taps new crypto czar

/in


WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department has tapped a seasoned computer crimes prosecutor to lead its new national cryptocurrency enforcement team and announced on Thursday that the FBI is launching a unit for blockchain analysis and virtual asset seizure.

The creation of the FBI’s “virtual asset exploitation” unit comes after the Justice Department’s largest-ever financial seizure earlier this month. It charged a married New York couple with allegedly laundering bitcoins now valued at over $4.5 billion that were stolen in the 2016 hack of the digital currency exchange Bitfinex.

U.S. regulators under President Joe Biden have been ratcheting up their scrutiny of the crypto industry in the wake of a series of high-profile cyberattacks last year on the largest U.S. fuel pipeline network and the world’s largest beef supplier. Ransomware groups often demand their fees in bitcoin.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

In some of those cases, the FBI has been able to track down and recover some of the ransom.

Cryptocurrencies rely on blockchain technology, a database shared across a network of computers, in which records are difficult to change once added.

In a speech at the Munich Cyber Security Conference in Germany, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced that Eun Young Choi, a prosecutor who led the case against a Russian hacker who helped steal information about more than 80 million JPMorgan & Chase Co customers, will lead the department’s cryptocurrency enforcement team.

Choi, who most recently served as Monaco’s senior counsel, worked for nearly a decade as a cybercrime coordinator and assistant U.S. attorney in New York, according to her LinkedIn profile. the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York.

“We are issuing a clear warning to criminals who use cryptocurrency to fuel their schemes,” Monaco said.

“We also call on all companies dealing with cryptocurrency – we need you to root out cryptocurrency abuses. To those who do not, we will hold you accountable where we can.”

Monaco also announced the creation of a new international virtual currency initiative, and said the department will be aggressive about disrupting cyber threats, even at the…

Source…

Ransomware Gangs: the Newest Form of International Cyber Criminals

/in


By Author: by Caitlyn-Rae Arendse, Security Television Network

Click here for updates on this story

    September 2, 2021 (Security Television Network) — Reporting (Security Television Network)—The future of our safety is in our hands and on our screens, as the United States and several other countries battle against cyber threats daily made by the newest form of online international criminals: Ransomware gangs. Ransomware, or the growing form of malware that can be placed upon files and systems that can make them incapable of use. The nation has seen several cyber ransomware breaches this past year, including claims of attempted breach of the Republican National Committee, to the hacking of the Colonial Gas Pipeline, and even wiped a small town in Maryland off the Internet entirely.

As threats surrounding ransomware unfold, we are now learning of a new term within the community of cyber security: Ransomware Gangs—describing groups of cyber hackers who team up and attack multiple individuals online at the same time as a collective. Many high-ranking officials and professionals who specialize in computer science and the cyber-world say that these ransomware gangs are vast in size and must be brought to the attention of the public in order to learn more about computer safety.

Dr. Theodore Allen, Associate Professor of Integrated Systems Engineering and Computer Science Engineering at The Ohio State University, believes that many people in the west do not know the large threat of cyber ransomware gangs and what they pose. “I use data to help people find out how to defend themselves”

“I use data to help people find out how to defend themselves”

“I have read a series of articles… about the growing ecosystem and maturity level of ransomware organizations. Some seem less like games and more like software companies… many of us in the West seem remarkably oblivious to world conflicts and their effects” Allen said.

Allen continues to say that the gangs have business/organizational-like features, adopting more of a professional and organized nature to ensure successful hacking.

“Some ransomware organizations have customer relations…

Source…

Best Practices for Web Form Security

/in


Best Practices for Web Form Security

Web form security  ⁠— the set of tools and practices intended to protect web forms from attacks and abuse ⁠— is one of the most critical aspects of overall website security. Web forms allow users to interact with your site and enable a lot of useful functionality. However, once a user can interact with your site to do something useful there is a new attack surface for a hacker to exploit.  

To help you get the usability benefits of web forms while limiting the security risks we’ve created this list of best practices for web form security.

Continue reading Best Practices for Web Form Security at Sucuri Blog.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Sucuri Blog authored by David Zomaya. Read the original post at: https://blog.sucuri.net/2021/08/best-practices-for-web-form-security.html

Source…

Before you fill out a CAPTCHA form on a website, know a scammer could be behind it

/in


The chances are good that you have come across a human authentication system online. In Google’s version, you are usually asked to point out things like cars, traffic lights or fire hydrants. Other websites might use the popular CAPTCHA test.

A word or a phrase is usually displayed in a strange font or typeface. This is done so that computers can’t “read” the letters, as only a human can decipher the code. Interestingly, Google acquired the reCAPTCHA deployment system in 2019.

Cybercriminals are now using the same technology to target potential victims. While the use of CAPTCHA as a scam delivery system isn’t new, the frequency of online deployment has increased. Here’s what to look out for, and how to stay safe.

Here’s the backstory

Visual puzzles aren’t the preferred method for scammers. But a recent report by Proofpoint showed that attacks using CAPTCHA increased by 50 times compared to last year. The technology itself isn’t the scam, but it lends more credibility to the overall scam.

Scams can be delivered through phishing emails or targeted attacks, and CAPTCHA ensures that the criminal targets a real person. It can also be used to determine where the victim is from.

Once the potential victim opens the phishing email, they might be asked to log into a website or service. To make it look more authentic, cybercriminals will insert a CAPTCHA verification. Some people will then assume that the resulting webpage is real, which it most certainly isn’t.

But why are more people falling for the CAPTCHA scam? It might have something to do with working from home.

“Remote workers may have been more distracted and cognitively taxed under the stresses of 2020. Perhaps some were even primed by new remote-work controls to see the CAPTCHA question as a normal security challenge,” the report explained.

Research also indicated that these attacks could have been linked to the Emotet botnet that caused havoc last year. A cybercriminal campaign sent out massive amounts of spam email, many of which often used world…

Source…