Tag Archive for: Crimes

Maltese suspected hacker to be extradited to United States for computer malware crimes

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A Maltese man is waiting to be extradited to the United States after an operation by the Maltese police assisting the FBI in investigations led to his arrest.

Daniel Joe Meli, who is 27 years old is believed to have worked with people who are not Maltese in connection with the sale of illegal malware on the dark web. The accused, who is from Żabbar, was also said to have been involved in mentoring services on a hack forum, an internet forum for hacker culture and computer security.

The malware, a remote access trojan or RAT, is used by criminals to gain access to computers and servers and control their operation. The police said there were several victims in the United States who had fallen prey to this RAT, with no reported victims in Malta so far.

Meli’s social media profiles suggests that he used to work with Air Malta as a check-in agent, and that he now works with Aviaserve.

The investigations in Malta, overseen by the police cybercrime unit, were initiated following a request for assistance from the United States, which indicated that the prime suspect in the sale of this RAT is Maltese.

Investigations revealed the identification of the Maltese suspect and his association with other criminals who are not Maltese and do not reside in Malta.

The suspect was arrested at his workplace in Gudja on 7 February, and during searches conducted at various locations related to the suspect, numerous items linked to this investigation were seized.

The 27-year-old man appeared in court on Thursday afternoon before Magistrate Dr. Giannella Camilleri Busuttil LL.D, to begin extradition proceedings to the United States, where he will face charges before the American court.

He has consented to extradition and is being held in custody at the Correctional Facility in Kordin.

In connection with this investigation, a Nigerian accomplice, residing in Nigeria, was also arrested.

Operations in various countries related to the same illegal malware trade on the dark web were being coordinated by Europol, involving several other states, including the Australian Federal Police, the Canadian Police, Croatian Police, Finnish Police, Dutch Police, Romanian Police, German Police, and Nigerian…

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Ex-CIA Officer Imprisoned For ‘Heinous Crimes Of Espionage’

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CIA 3d rendering of American flag cyber

iStockphoto

Ex-CIA officer Joshua Adam Schulte sent to prison for “committing some of the most brazen, heinous crimes of espionage in American history.”

The 35-year-old Schulte was sentenced to 40 years in prison for crimes of espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, and making false statements to the FBI.

Schulte was employed by the CIA as a software developer in the Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI) from 2012 to 2016.

“Mr. Schulte severely harmed U.S. national security and directly risked the lives of CIA personnel, persisting in his efforts even after his arrest,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a statement.

In March 2016, Schulte was moved within branches of CCI as a result of personnel disputes between Schulte and another developer. Following that transfer, in April 2016, Schulte abused his administrator powers to grant himself administrator privileges over a development project from which he had been removed as a result of the branch change. Schulte’s abuse of administrator privileges was detected, and CCI leadership directed that administrator privileges would immediately be transferred from developers, including Schulte, to another division. Schulte was also given a warning about self-granting administrator privileges that had previously been revoked.

Schulte had, however, secretly opened an administrator session on one of the servers before his privileges were removed. On April 20, 2016, after other developers had left the CCI office, Schulte used his secret server administrator session to execute a series of cyber-maneuvers on the CIA network to restore his revoked privileges, break in to the backups, steal copies of the entire CCI tool development archives (the Stolen CIA Files), revert the network back to its prior state, and delete hundreds of log files in an attempt to cover his tracks. Schulte’s theft of the Stolen CIA Files is the largest data breach in CIA history.

From his home computer, Schulte then transmitted the Stolen CIA Files to WikiLeaks, using anonymizing tools recommended by WikiLeaks to potential leakers, such as the Tails operating system and the…

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Ransomware and Darknet Markets Top List For Most Prominent Crypto Crimes

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Rachel Wolfson

Last updated:

| 5 min read

Hacker with computer and golden coins on dark background. Cybercrime concept, hacker without a face is trying to steal cryptocurrency using a computer, AI Generated

A new report from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis found that crypto related crimes decreased in 2023. While notable, findings also show that ransomware and darknet market activity involving cryptocurrency increased considerably.

Eric Jardine, cybercrime research lead for Chainalysis, told Cryptonews that both ransomware wallets and darknet market wallets saw more inflows during 2023 than 2022 measured in terms of dollars. Jardine further explained that these two categories of illicit activity involve different underlying patterns of behavior. He said:

“In the case of ransomware, for example, increased inflows mean that individuals, companies, critical infrastructure providers, and governments are paying more or larger ransoms after being the victim of a cyberattack by a malicious actor in 2023 than they did in 2022.  In the case of darknet markets, inflows often represent various forms of illegal activity, most notably the purchase of illicit drugs such as fentanyl, heroin, or cocaine.”

Why ransomware and darknet market activities are increasing


Unfortunately, Jardine believes that 2023 marked the recovery of the illicit darknet ecosystem. He mentioned that the closure of Hydra Marketplace in 2022 – one of the largest darknet marketplaces – reduced the aggregate inflows to darknet markets that year. However, this also resulted in an influx in darknet market activity during 2023.

Source: Chainalysis

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2,430 hacking crimes investigated; 7,092 suspects arrested since 2022, effectively safeguarding cybersecurity: public security authority

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hacker Photo: VCG

Photo: VCG

Since 2022, public security organs across China have investigated 2,430 hacking crimes and arrested 7,092 suspects, effectively cutting off the chain of hacking crimes, protecting network and data security, and safeguarding the normal order of cyberspace, the Ministry of Public Security announced on Thursday at a press conference.

The authority noted that according to its latest statistics, the number of hacking cases in China has been increasing for three consecutive years, with an average annual growth rate of 27.7 percent. The ministry also noted that the average age of hackers has been decreasing year by year, and there have even been cases of elementary school students proficiently using hacker tools.

The rise in hacking crimes has become increasingly prominent in recent years. During the press conference in Beijing, Shi You, the deputy director of the Bureau of Network Security Protection of the ministry, introduced that hacking crimes mainly involve illegal intrusion into computer information systems, unauthorized access to computer data, illegal control of computer information systems, providing programs and tools for illegal intrusion and control of computer information systems, as well as the destruction of computer information systems.

The ministry released 10 typical cases of hacker crimes, as part of the efforts and significant achievements by the authority during the nationwide campaign called “Clean up the Internet.”

In one typical hacking case, the Panzhihua public security bureau in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province successfully handled in January a case of making profit through illegal remote manipulation of older mobile phones, with the whole chain making illegal profits of more than 100 million yuan ($14.02 million).

The local public security authority in September 2022 uncovered multiple cases of automatic ordering of value-added services on older phones, resulting in monthly deductions of 1 to 10 yuan ($1.4) for related value-added services, indicating that the phones were remotely controlled.

After investigation, it was found that the suspects surnamed Chen and Gao colluded with vendors and manufacturers of older phones to implant Trojan programs…

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