Latest Court Case news

Cybersecurity consultant arrested after allegedly extorting IT firm

A former cybersecurity consultant was arrested for allegedly attempting to extort a publicly traded IT company by threatening to disclose confidential and proprietary data unless they paid him $1,500,000.
- Bill Toulas
- May 02, 2024
- 09:41 AM
- 0
Google agrees to delete Chrome browsing data of 136 million users

Google has agreed to delete billions of data records collected from 136 million Chrome users in the United States, as part of a lawsuit settlement regarding alleged undisclosed browser data collection while in Incognito mode.
- Bill Toulas
- April 02, 2024
- 01:07 PM
- 0
Former telecom manager admits to doing SIM swaps for $1,000

A former manager at a telecommunications company in New Jersey pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges for accepting money to perform unauthorized SIM swaps that enabled an accomplice to hack customer accounts.
- Bill Toulas
- March 15, 2024
- 11:26 AM
- 3
Bitcoin Fog mixer operator convicted for laundering $400 million

Russian-Swedish national Roman Sterlingov was convicted by a federal jury in Washington, D.C., for operating Bitcoin Fog between 2011 and 2021.
- Bill Toulas
- March 13, 2024
- 08:54 AM
- 0
LockBit ransomware affiliate gets four years in jail, to pay $860k

Russian-Canadian cybercriminal Mikhail Vasiliev has been sentenced to four years in prison by an Ontario court for his involvement in the LockBit ransomware operation.
- Bill Toulas
- March 13, 2024
- 07:42 AM
- 0
Vastaamo hacker traced via ‘untraceable’ Monero transactions, police says

Julius Aleksanteri Kivimäki, the suspect believed to be behind an attack against one of Finland's largest psychotherapy clinics, Vastaamo, was allegedly identified by tracing what has been believed to be untraceable Monero transactions.
- Bill Toulas
- January 30, 2024
- 02:44 PM
- 1
Court charges dev with hacking after cybersecurity issue disclosure

A German court has charged a programmer investigating an IT problem with hacking and fined them €3,000 ($3,265) for what it deemed was unauthorized access to external computer systems and spying on data.
- Bill Toulas
- January 20, 2024
- 11:17 AM
- 3
BreachForums hacking forum admin sentenced to 20 years supervised release

Conor Brian Fitzpatrick was sentenced to 20 years of supervised release today in the Eastern District of Virginia for operating the notorious BreachForums hacking forum, known for the sale and leaking of personal data for hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
- Lawrence Abrams
- January 19, 2024
- 06:20 PM
- 1
US govt wants BreachForums admin sentenced to 15 years in prison

The United States government has recommended that Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, the creator and lead administrator of the now-defunct BreachForums hacking forums, receive a sentence of 15 years in prison.
- Bill Toulas
- January 18, 2024
- 11:08 AM
- 3
Cloud engineer gets 2 years for wiping ex-employer’s code repos

Miklos Daniel Brody, a cloud engineer, was sentenced to two years in prison and a restitution of $529,000 for wiping the code repositories of his former employer in retaliation for being fired by the company.
- Bill Toulas
- December 12, 2023
- 10:02 AM
- 2
E-Root admin faces 20 years for selling stolen RDP, SSH accounts

Sandu Diaconu, the operator of the E-Root marketplace, has been extradited to the U.S. to face a maximum imprisonment penalty of 20 years for selling access to compromised computers.
- Bill Toulas
- October 19, 2023
- 06:42 PM
- 1
ShinyHunters member pleads guilty to $6 million in data theft damages

Sebastien Raoult, a 22-year-old from France, has pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court of Seattle to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft as part of his activities in the ShinyHunters hacking group.
- Bill Toulas
- September 29, 2023
- 10:59 AM
- 0
Nigerian man pleads guilty to attempted $6 million BEC email heist

Kosi Goodness Simon-Ebo, a 29-year-old Nigerian national extradited from Canada to the United States last April, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering through business email compromise (BEC).
- Bill Toulas
- September 22, 2023
- 03:24 PM
- 2
SSNDOB cybercrime market admin faces 15 years after pleading guilty

A Ukrainian man, Vitalii Chychasov, has pleaded guilty in the United States to conspiracy to commit access device fraud and trafficking in unauthorized access devices through the now-shutdown SSNDOB Marketplace.
- Bill Toulas
- July 27, 2023
- 02:08 PM
- 0
Bulletproof hoster gets 3 years for pushing Ursnif, Zeus malware

Romanian national Mihai Ionut Paunescu, aka "Virus," was sentenced to three years in prison by a Manhattan federal court for running a bulletproof hosting service and facilitating the distribution of the Gozi (Ursnif), Zeus, SpyEye, and BlackEnergy malware.
- Bill Toulas
- June 13, 2023
- 10:52 AM
- 1
CEO guilty of selling counterfeit Cisco devices to military, govt orgs

A Florida man has pleaded guilty to importing and selling counterfeit Cisco networking equipment to various organizations, including education, government agencies, healthcare, and the military.
- Bill Toulas
- June 07, 2023
- 10:19 AM
- 3
IT employee impersonates ransomware gang to extort employer

A 28-year-old United Kingdom man from Fleetwood, Hertfordshire, has been convicted of unauthorized computer access with criminal intent and blackmailing his employer.
- Bill Toulas
- May 23, 2023
- 11:22 AM
- 5
Hacker ‘PlugwalkJoe’ pleads guilty to 2020 Twitter breach

Joseph James O'Connor, aka 'PlugwalkJoke,' has pleaded guilty to multiple cybercrime offenses, including SIM swapping attacks, cyberstalking, computer hacking, and hijacking high-profile accounts on Twitter and TikTok.
- Bill Toulas
- May 10, 2023
- 09:48 AM
- 0
Russian hacker convicted of $90 million hack-to-trade charges

Russian national Vladislav Klyushin was found guilty of participating in a global scheme that involved hacking into U.S. computer networks to steal confidential earnings reports, which helped the criminals net $90,000,000 in illegal profits.
- Bill Toulas
- February 15, 2023
- 03:39 PM
- 0
Fired admin cripples former employer's network using old credentials

An IT system administrator of a prominent financial company based in Hawaii, U.S., used a pair of credentials that hadn't been invalidated after he was laid off to wreak havoc on his employer.
- Bill Toulas
- September 29, 2022
- 04:45 PM
- 4