IT NEWS

A cybercriminal using the handle Sp1d3r is offering to sell 3 TB of data taken from Advance Auto Parts, Inc. Advance Auto Parts is a US automotive aftermarket parts provider that serves both professional installers and do it yourself customers.

Allegedly the customer data includes:

• Names
• Email addresses
• Phone numbers
• Physical address
• Orders
• Loyalty and gas card numbers
• Sales history

The data set allegedly also includes information about 358,000 employees and candidates—which is a lot more than are currently employed by Advance Auto Parts (69,000 in 2023).

The cybercriminal is asking $1.5 Million for the data set.

Advance Auto Parts has not disclosed any information about a possible data breach and has not responded to inquiries. But BleepingComputer confirms that a large number of the Advance Auto Parts sample customer records are legitimate.

Interestingly enough, the seller claims in their post that the data comes from Snowflake, a cloud company used by thousands of companies to manage their data. On May 31st, Snowflake said it had recently observed and was investigating an increase in cyber threat activity targeting some of its customers’ accounts. It didn’t mention which customers.

At the time, everybody focused on Live Nation / Ticketmaster, another client of Snowflake which said it had detected unauthorized activity within a “third-party cloud database environment” containing company data.

The problem allegedly lies in the fact that Snowflake lets each customer manage the security of their environments, and does not enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Online media outlet TechCrunch says it has:

“Seen hundreds of alleged Snowflake customer credentials that are available online for cybercriminals to use as part of hacking campaigns, suggesting that the risk of Snowflake customer account compromises may be far wider than first known.”

TechCrunch also says it found more than 500 credentials containing employee usernames and passwords, along with the web addresses of the login pages for Snowflake environments, belonging to Santander, Ticketmaster, at least two pharmaceutical giants, a food delivery service, a public-run freshwater supplier, and others.

Meanwhile, Snowflake has urged its customers to immediately switch on MFA for their accounts.

Protecting yourself after a data breach

There are some actions you can take if you are, or suspect you may have been, the victim of a data breach.

• Check the vendor’s advice. Every breach is different, so check with the vendor to find out what’s happened, and follow any specific advice they offer.
• Change your password. You can make a stolen password useless to thieves by changing it. Choose a strong password that you don’t use for anything else. Better yet, let a password manager choose one for you.
• Enable two-factor authentication (2FA). If you can, use a FIDO2-compliant hardware key, laptop or phone as your second factor. Some forms of two-factor authentication (2FA) can be phished just as easily as a password. 2FA that relies on a FIDO2 device can’t be phished.
• Watch out for fake vendors. The thieves may contact you posing as the vendor. Check the vendor website to see if they are contacting victims, and verify the identity of anyone who contacts you using a different communication channel.
• Take your time. Phishing attacks often impersonate people or brands you know, and use themes that require urgent attention, such as missed deliveries, account suspensions, and security alerts.
• Consider not storing your card details. It’s definitely more convenient to get sites to remember your card details for you, but we highly recommend not storing that information on websites.
• Set up identity monitoring. Identity monitoring alerts you if your personal information is found being traded illegally online, and helps you recover after.

Check your exposure

While the Advance Auto Parts data has yet to be confirmed, it’s likely you’ve had other personal information exposed online in previous data breaches. You can check what personal information of yours has been exposed with our Digital Footprint portal. Just enter your email address (it’s best to submit the one you most frequently use) to our free Digital Footprint scan and we’ll give you a report.

We don’t just report on threats – we help safeguard your entire digital identity

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your—and your family’s—personal information by using identity protection.

Following their divorce, a husband carried out a campaign of stalking and abuse against his ex-wife—referred to only as “S.K.”—by allegedly hiding seven separate Apple AirTags on or near her car, according to documents filed by US prosecutors for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The documents, unearthed by 404 Media in collaboration with Court Watch, reveal how everyday consumer tools, like Bluetooth trackers, are sometimes leveraged for abuse against spouses and romantic partners.

 “The Defendant continued to adapt and use increasingly sophisticated efforts to hide the AirTags he placed on S.K.’s car,” US attorneys said. “It is clear from the timing of the placement of the AirTags and corroborating cell-site data, that he was monitoring S.K.’s movements.”

On May 8, the US government filed an indictment against the defendant, Ibodullo Muhiddinov Numanovich, with one alleged count of stalking against his ex-wife, S.K.

The stalking at the center of the government’s indictment allegedly began around March 27, when the FBI first learned about S.K. finding and removing an AirTag from her car. Less than a month later, on April 18, the FBI found a second AirTag that “was taped underneath the front bumper of S.K.’s vehicle with white duct tape.”

The very next day, the FBI found a third AirTag. This time, it was “wrapped in a blue medical mask and secured under the vehicle near the rear passenger side wheel well.”

This pattern of finding an AirTag, removing it, and then finding another was punctuated by physical and verbal intimidation, the government wrote. After a fourth AirTag was removed, the government said that Numanovich called S.K., followed her to a car wash, and “banged on her windows, and demanded to know why S.K. was not answering his calls.” Less than one week later, during a period of just 10 minutes, the government said that Numanovich left five threatening voice mails on S.K.’s phone, calling her “disgusting” and “worse than an animal.”

During the investigation, the FBI retrieved seven AirTags in total. Here is where those AirTags were found:

1. Found by S.K. with no detail on specific location
2. Duct-taped underneath the front bumper of S.K.’s car
3. Underneath S.K.’s car, near the passenger-side wheel well, wrapped in a blue medical mask
4. Within the frame of SK’s driver-side mirror, wedged between the mirror itself and the casing around it
5. “An opening within the vehicle’s frame” which, documents say, was previously sealed by a rubber plug that was removed
6. Underneath the license plate on S.K.’s car
7. Undisclosed

For two of the retrieved AirTags, the FBI deactivated the trackers and then, away from S.K., placed the AirTags at separate locations. At an undisclosed location in Philadelphia where the FBI placed one AirTag, FBI agents later saw Numanovich “exit his vehicle with his phone in his hand, and begin searching for the AirTag.” At a convenience store where the FBI placed a second AirTag, agents said they again saw Numanovich.

The FBI also received information about attempted pairings and successful unpairings with Numanovich’s Apple account for three of the Apple AirTags.

In addition to the alleged pattern of stalking, the government also accused Numanovich of abusing SK both physically and emotionally, threatening her in person and over the phone, and recording sexually explicit videos of her to use as extortion. After a search warrant was authorized on May 13, agents found “approximately 140 sexually explicit photographs and videos of S.K.” stored on Numanovich’s phone, along with records for “numerous” financial accounts that transferred more than $4 million between 2022 and 2023.

In a follow-on request from the government to detain Numanovich before his trial begins, prosecutors also revealed that S.K. may have been brought into the US through a “Russian-based human smuggling network”—a network of which Numanovich might be a member.

According to 404 Media, a jury trial for Numanovich is scheduled to start on June 8.

Improving AirTag safety

Just last month, Apple and Google announced an industry specification for Bluetooth tracking devices such as AirTags to help alert users to unwanted tracking. The specification will make it possible to alert users across both iOS and Android if a device is unknowingly being used to track them. We applaud this development.

We don’t just report on threats—we remove them

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

Microsoft’s Recall feature has been criticized heavily by pretty much everyone since it was announced last month. Now, researchers have demonstrated the risks by creating a tool that can find, extract, and display everything Recall has stored on a device.

For those unaware, Recall is a feature within what Microsoft is calling its “Copilot+ PCs,” a reference to the AI assistant and companion which the company released in late 2023.

The idea is that Recall can assist users to reconstruct past activity by taking regular screenshots of a user’s activity and storing them, so it can answer important questions like “where did I see those expensive white sneakers?”

However, the scariest part is that Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers and that data may be in snapshots that are stored on your device.

Many security professionals have pointed out that this kind of built-in spyware is a security risk. But Microsoft tried to reassure users, saying:

“Recall data is only stored locally and not accessed by Microsoft or anyone who does not have device access.”

The problem lies in that last part of the statement. Who has device access? Although Microsoft claimed that an attacker would need to gain physical access, unlock the device and sign in before they could access saved screenshots, it turns out that might not be true.

As a warning about how Recall could be abused by criminal hackers, Alex Hagenah, a cybersecurity researcher, has released a demo tool that is capable of automatically extracting and displaying everything Recall records on a laptop.

For reasons any science fiction fan will understand, Hagenah has named that tool TotalRecall.  All the information that Recall saves into its main database on a Windows laptop can be “recalled.“

As Hagenah points out:

“The database is unencrypted. It’s all plain text.”

TotalRecall can automatically find the Recall database on a person’s computer and make a copy of the file, for whatever date range you want. Pulling one day of screenshots from Recall, which stores its information in an SQLite database, took two seconds at most, according to Hagenah. Once TotalRecall has been deployed, it is possible to generate a summary about the data or search for specific terms in the database.

Now imagine an info-stealer that incorporates the capabilities of TotalRecall. This is not a far-fetched scenario because many information stealers are modular. The operators can add or leave out certain modules based on the target and the information they are after. And reportedly, the number of devices infected with data stealing malware has seen a sevenfold increase since 2023.

Another researcher, Kevin Beaumont, says he has built a website where a Recall database can be uploaded and instantly searched. He says he hasn’t released the site yet, to allow Microsoft time to potentially change the system.

According to Beaumont:

“InfoStealer trojans, which automatically steal usernames and passwords, are a major problem for well over a decade—now these can just be easily modified to support Recall.”

It’s true that any information stealer will need administrator rights to access Recall data, but attacks that gain those right have been around for years, and most information stealer malware does this already.

Hagenah also warned that in cases of employers with bring your own devices (BYOD) policies, there’s a risk of someone leaving with huge volumes of company data saved on their laptops.

It is worrying that this type of tools is already available even before the official launch of Recall. The risk of identity theft only increases when we allow our machines to “capture” every move we make and everything we look at.

We don’t just report on threats – we help safeguard your entire digital identity

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your—and your family’s—personal information by using identity protection.

“Hey there!” messaged Savannah, someone 16-year-old Charlie had never met before, but looked cute in her profile picture. She had long blonde hair, blue eyes, and an adorable smile, so he decided to DM with her on Instagram. Soon their flirty exchanges grew heated, and Savannah was sending Charlie explicit photos. When she asked him for some in return, he thought nothing of taking a quick snap of himself naked and sending it her way.

Within seconds, “Savannah” morphed from vixen to vice, threatening Charlie with posting his nude picture all over social media—unless he sent $500. Then she gave Charlie three days to get her the money, otherwise she’d share the compromising photos with his friends and family.

While the above scene is fictional, it’s indicative of what the FBI and Department of Homeland Security agree is the fastest-growing cybercrime of the last three years. It’s called financially motivated sextortion, or financial sextortion, and its victims are mainly teenage boys between the ages of 14 and 17.

Financial sextortion happens when adult criminals create fake accounts posing as young women on social media, gaming platforms, or messaging apps, and coerce victims into sending explicit photos. Scammers then threaten victims into sending payment, usually in the form of cryptocurrency, wire transfer, or gift cards, otherwise they’ll post the images online for all to see.

In an emerging trend, some sextortion scammers are now using artificial intelligence to manipulate photos from victims’ social media accounts into sexually graphic content. The predators then threaten to share the content on public forums and pornographic websites, as well as report victims to the police, claiming they’re in possession of child pornography. Demands for money immediately follow.

In 2023 alone, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received 26,718 reports of financial sextortion of minors, more than double the 10,731 incidents reported in 2022. Sadly, these figures are likely far understated, since they rely on kids or their parents calling in the crime. A January 2024 threat intelligence report from Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) found children in the United States, Canada, and Australia are being targeted at an alarming rate, with a massive 1,000 percent surge in financial sextortion incidents in the last 18 months.

To illustrate how quickly the digital landscape has changed, a 2018 national survey found just 5 percent of US teens reported being victims of sextortion. Fast forward to June 2023, and 51 percent of Generation Z respondents said they or their friends were catfished in sextortion scams—47 percent in the last three months.

The Yahoo Boys

Financial sextortion has been linked to scammers in West Africa, particularly Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, as well as the Philippines. However, NCRI notes virtually all sextortion scams targeting minors can be directly linked to a distributed West African gang known as the Yahoo Boys. The Yahoo Boys mainly go after English-speaking minors and young adults on Instagram, Snapchat, and Wizz, an online dating platform for teens. They’re the original Nigerian Princes, but have changed tactics in recent years to elder fraud, romance scams, fake job scams—and now the sexual extortion of children for profit.

NCRI credits the tenfold increase in financial sextortion cases directly to the Yahoo Boys’ distribution of instructional videos and scripts on TikTok, YouTube, and Scribd, which are encouraging and enabling other threat actors to engage in financial sextortion as well. The videos have been viewed more than half a million times, and comments are filled with cybercriminals eager to download the scripts and get started.

The sextortion guides provide step-by-step instructions on how to create convincing fake social media profiles and “bomb” high schools, universities, and youth sports teams. The Yahoo Boys use this term to describe friending/following as many kids in a school or other location as possible to convince victims they could be an unknown classmate or peer from a nearby town.

While the payment amounts requested by the Yahoo Boys vary, they can range from as little as a couple hundred dollars to a few thousand. But predators employ ruthless tactics to intimidate their victims into paying, which can inflict lasting trauma and immense distress on children. Offenders often continue demanding more money after receiving the initial sum and may release victims’ sexually explicit images regardless of whether or not they were paid.

Indeed, the financial fallout may not be as daunting as the millions demanded by ransomware actors, but the emotional cost to teenage boys can be devastating. Anxiety. Humiliation. Shame. Despair. Feeling completely alone and afraid to ask for help. According to the FBI, financial sextortion has even been linked to fatalities. To their knowledge, at least 20 teens between January 2021 and July 2023 committed suicide when faced with the threat of nude photos that could ruin their lives.

What to do if you or your child is financially sextorted

Parents of teenage boys—or all teens for that matter—should have a conversation with their child about the pitfalls of financial sextortion. Remind them to be selective about what they share online and who they connect with, and if a stranger reaches out to them demanding payment or sexually explicit images, they should speak to a trusted adult before sending anything, be it money, photos, or more messages. In fact, open lines of communication can be the difference between life or death, so if your child doesn’t feel comfortable going to you, ask that they bookmark this article or one of the references listed below.

If you or your child are a victim of financially motivated sextortion, the most important advice to remember is this: You are not alone. You are not in trouble. Your child should not be in trouble. There is a way forward after this.

There are several resources you or your child can access to report the crime to law enforcement, speak to a caring counselor or peer, and request that harmful images be taken down. Here’s what we suggest:

• Block the scammer from contacting you again, but save all chats and profile information because that will help law enforcement identify them.
• Report the scammer’s account on the platform where the crime took place. Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta unveiled new tools last month to combat financial sextortion, and Snapchat has a reporting feature for nudity or sexual content, which now includes the option: “They leaked/are threatening to leak my nudes.”
• Report the crime to NCMEC at Cybertipline.org or directly to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov or the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at ic3.gov. FBI Victim Services also has a Child Exploitation Notification Program. Canadian victims can access the Canadian Centre for Child Protection for resources, and report crimes to Cybertip.ca.
• Seek emotional support, whether from a trusted adult, friend, or through professional services. NCMEC offers assistance for sextortion victims and their families, such as crisis intervention and referrals to local counseling professionals, and their Team Hope volunteer program connects victims to other who’ve experienced financial sextortion.
• If you prefer a more anonymous support experience, the moderated Reddit forum r/Sextortion is a safe haven for victims to share their experiences and get advice from those who’ve already been through it.
• Victims looking to remove sexually explicit images from the internet can go to Take It Down for help or Project Arachnid, which uses automated detection methods along with a team of analysts to quickly send removal notices to electronic service providers.
• Ask for help. Problems from financial sextortion can be complex and require assistance from adults and professionals. If you don’t feel you have adults who can help, reach out to NCMEC at gethelp@ncmec.org or call 1-800-THE-LOST.

For more information and resources, visit the FBI’s page on financially motivated sextortion.

Announcing the latest version of Malwarebytes, which brings a faster, responsive, and consistent user interface, integrated security and privacy, and expert guidance to keep you secure.

Here’s what you can expect:

1. Unified user experience across platforms 

The new generation of Malwarebytes now delivers a consistent user experience across all our desktop and mobile platforms. The reimagined user interface is faster, more responsive, and managed through an intuitive dashboard, giving you a streamlined experience wherever you use Malwarebytes. 

Why? Sophisticated hacking tactics and various entry points mean you can’t afford to have blind spots in your protection. A seamless experience across all platforms and devices means you don’t have to figure out more than once about what to do next. We’ve also made it easier to find everything, encouraging you to keep your guard up on all your devices. 

2. Premium Security and Privacy VPN integration 

We’ve merged our award-winning Premium Security and ultra fast no-log Privacy VPN into a single dashboard, making it much easier for you to take control of your privacy. With just one click, you can now protect your Wi-Fi or hotspot connections and change your location to visit the site you want at the speed you need. Don’t forget to also use Browser Guard on your desktop to block ad trackers and scam sites from your browser.  

Why? We know that the distinction between security and privacy is not clear-cut, and you need both products to work together to minimize your exposure (risk of threats and lack of privacy). Integrating the two makes it much easier to protect both your devices and data (at home and on the go), with an easy set-and-forget experience that doesn’t require adding another program.  You shouldn’t have to guess whether the next attack will compromise your Wi-Fi connection, browser, or files through phishing emails, spyware, or malware. Let the technology do this for you.  

3. Trusted Advisor, your security coach  

On the Malwarebytes dashboard, Trusted Advisor provides unbiased expert guidance at your fingertips. Your easy-to-understand individual Protection Score enables you to act on any potential security gaps, unlocking the full power of technology.

Why? In our recent report, “Everyone’s afraid of the internet, and no one’s sure what to do about it,” we found that only half of the people surveyed felt confident they knew how to stay safe online, and even fewer said they were taking the right measures to protect themselves. Trusted Advisor empowers you with real-time insights, an easy-to-read protection score, and expert guidance that puts you in control of your security and privacy.  We’re by your side guiding you through what to do next to fill your security gaps for each device and platform (Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS).

Want to try? You can! With our 14-day free trial.  

Already a customer but not yet seeing it? Log into MyAccount or download the latest version.  

Software Requirements: 

• Windows 7 (or higher) 
• macOS 11 BigSur (or higher)
• iOS 16 (or higher) 
• Android 9 (or higher) 

High profile TikTok accounts, including CNN, Sony, and—er­—Paris Hilton have been targeted in a recent attack.

CNN was the first account takeover that made the news, with Semafor reporting that the account was down for several days after the incident.

According to Forbes, the attack happens without the account owner needing to click on or open anything—known as a zero-click attack. All they need to do is open a DM. The account is then taken over and the user loses access.

Malwarebytes’ Pieter Arntz explained how this sort of attack could happen:

“If they don’t need to click on anything, this could well be a vulnerability in the way content is loaded when opening the DM. We’ve seen similar vulnerabilities before in Chromium browser, for example when fabricated images are loaded.”

TikTok says it has now fixed the issue and is working to get the accounts back to their rightful owners. Spokesperson Alex Haurek told Forbes:

“Our security team is aware of a potential exploit targeting a number of brand and celebrity accounts. We have taken measures to stop this attack and prevent it from happening in the future. “

Haurek didn’t say whether the attackers were still targeting accounts.

Securing your TikTok account

This attack is eye-catching because it’s technically unusual, and was used against people who naturally attract headlines. However, it’s a flash in the pan and the vulnerability was quickly patched.

Meanwhile, there’s a thriving underground market in social logins fuelled with much more successful, but much more mundane forms of attack. To reduce your risk of those, make sure you do these things:

• Use a strong password to secure your account, and make sure you’ve not used it elsewhere. You can use a password manager to remember your passwords.
• Enable two-step verification on your account. TikTok tells you how to do that here.
• Check what devices are logged into your account. TikTok Device Management allows you to view what devices are logged into your account, remove them if needed, and get notified if there is suspicious activity on your account.
• Be careful what you click on. If you receive a link from someone and you don’t know what it is, don’t click on it. Check via a different communication channel about what the link is. In this case, it appears that someone only had to open a DM in order to get their account taken over so watch out for DMs you’re not expecting.
• Don’t feel pressure. If someone is messaging you asking you to click on or send them something, think before you do it. Putting pressure on someone to perform an action quickly is a common tactic used by scammers. Trust your instincts.

We don’t just report on threats – we help safeguard your entire digital identity

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your—and your family’s—personal information by using identity protection.

Back in February, we reported on malicious ads related to utility bills (electricity, gas) that direct victims to call centers where scammers will collect their identity and try to extort money from them.

A few months later, we checked and were able to find as many Google ads as before, following very much the same pattern. In addition, we can see that miscreants are trying to legitimize their operations by creating fake U.S.-based entities.

Utility-based ads targeting mobile phones

It only took us 15 minutes to find about a dozen fraudulent ads on Google related to utility bills. This campaign is targeting mobile devices only, as far as we can tell, and U.S. residents. All the ads seen below belong to different advertisers based in Pakistan.

Some of those advertiser accounts have a fairly large footprint with several hundred ads.

Most often, the ad is not associated with a landing page (although a URL is displayed); instead clicking on the ad will bring up the phone number and prompt you to dial. Having said that, the domains used belong to the scammers and are often fairly new.

We also saw several ads that at first appear somewhat legitimate. They are registered to advertisers based in the US and their websites look almost authentic. But when you start checking the details, you realize some things don’t add up, such as an address that leads to an apartment complex.

Consumer protection

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has an article about utility scams, however the technique mentioned there is about scammers calling victims, rather than the other way around. For good reason many people won’t answer the phone when it shows an unknown number as it is likely yet another telemarketer. Certainly, there are victims that will answer the phone but the scam is much more effective when you are the one to initiate the call.

We have reported the fraudulent advertiser accounts to Google while we are also adding related domains to our blocklist. Remember to be extremely vigilant before calling anyone, especially if that number came from an advertisement. If in doubt, go directly to your utility company’s website using a computer and then look for a form or phone number that you can verify before dialing.

The US debt collection agency Financial Business and Consumer Solutions (FBCS) has filed a data breach notification, listing the the total number of people affected as 3,226,631.

FBCS is a nationally licensed, third-party collection agency that collects commercial and consumer debts, with most of its activity involving the recovery of consumer debts on behalf of creditors. According to the official statement provided by FBCS, the exposed data includes:

• Full names
• Social security numbers
• Birth dates
• Account information
• Drivers license or other state ID numbers

In some cases, it also includes medical claims information, provider information, and clinical information (including diagnosis/conditions, medications, and other treatment information), and/or health insurance information.

FBCS has sent data breach notifications to those affected, detailing what data was compromised and offering 12 months of free credit monitoring.

Protecting yourself after a data breach

There are some actions you can take if you are, or suspect you may have been, the victim of a data breach.

• Check the vendor’s advice. Every breach is different, so check with the vendor to find out what’s happened, and follow any specific advice they offer.
• Change your password. You can make a stolen password useless to thieves by changing it. Choose a strong password that you don’t use for anything else. Better yet, let a password manager choose one for you.
• Enable two-factor authentication (2FA). If you can, use a FIDO2-compliant hardware key, laptop or phone as your second factor. Some forms of two-factor authentication (2FA) can be phished just as easily as a password. 2FA that relies on a FIDO2 device can’t be phished.
• Watch out for fake vendors. The thieves may contact you posing as the vendor. Check the vendor website to see if they are contacting victims, and verify the identity of anyone who contacts you using a different communication channel.
• Take your time. Phishing attacks often impersonate people or brands you know, and use themes that require urgent attention, such as missed deliveries, account suspensions, and security alerts.
• Consider not storing your card details. It’s definitely more convenient to get sites to remember your card details for you, but we highly recommend not storing that information on websites.
• Set up identity monitoring. Identity monitoring alerts you if your personal information is found being traded illegally online, and helps you recover after.

Scan for your exposed personal data

You can check what personal information of yours has been exposed online with our Digital Footprint portal. Just enter your email address (it’s best to submit the one you most frequently use) to our free Digital Footprint scan and we’ll give you a report.

We don’t just report on threats – we help safeguard your entire digital identity

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your—and your family’s—personal information by using identity protection.

This week on the Lock and Code podcast…

This is a story about how the FBI got everything it wanted.

For decades, law enforcement and intelligence agencies across the world have lamented the availability of modern technology that allows suspected criminals to hide their communications from legal scrutiny. This long-standing debate has sometimes spilled into the public view, as it did in 2016, when the FBI demanded that Apple unlock an iPhone used during a terrorist attack in the California city of San Bernardino. Apple pushed back on the FBI’s request, arguing that the company could only retrieve data from the iPhone in question by writing new software with global consequences for security and privacy.

“The only way to get information—at least currently, the only way we know,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook, “would be to write a piece of software that we view as sort of the equivalent of cancer.”

The standoff held the public’s attention for months, until the FBI relied on a third party to crack into the device.

But just a couple of years later, the FBI had obtained an even bigger backdoor into the communication channels of underground crime networks around the world, and they did it almost entirely off the radar.

It all happened with the help of Anom, a budding company behind an allegedly “secure” phone that promised users a bevvy of secretive technological features, like end-to-end encrypted messaging, remote data wiping, secure storage vaults, and even voice scrambling. But, unbeknownst to Anom’s users, the entire company was a front for law enforcement. On Anom phones, every message, every photo, every piece of incriminating evidence, and every order to kill someone, was collected and delivered, in full view, to the FBI.

Today, on the Lock and Code podcast with host David Ruiz, we speak with 404 Media cofounder and investigative reporter Joseph Cox about the wild, true story of Anom. How did it work, was it “legal,” where did the FBI learn to run a tech startup, and why, amidst decades of debate, are some people ignoring the one real-life example of global forces successfully installing a backdoor into a company?

The public…and law enforcement, as well, [have] had to speculate about what a backdoor in a tech product would actually look like. Well, here’s the answer. This is literally what happens when there is a backdoor, and I find it crazy that not more people are paying attention to it.

Joseph Cox, author, Dark Wire, and 404 Media cofounder

Tune in today to listen to the full conversation.

Cox’s investigation into Anom, presented in his book titled Dark Wire, publishes June 4.

Show notes and credits:

Intro Music: “Spellbound” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Outro Music: “Good God” by Wowa (unminus.com)

Listen up—Malwarebytes doesn’t just talk cybersecurity, we provide it.

Protect yourself from online attacks that threaten your identity, your files, your system, and your financial well-being with our exclusive offer for Malwarebytes Premium for Lock and Code listeners.

This weekend a scammer tried his luck by reaching out to me on WhatsApp. It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, but trust me, it’s bad for your business.

I received one message from a number hailing from the Togolese Republic.

“Jay, your financial account has been added. Account Csy926. Password [********] USDT Balance 1,660,086.50 EUR: 592,030.92 [domain] Keep it in a safe place.”

I asked them to send the message in English, pretending not to understand Dutch, but received no reply.

But since it was a rainy day and I’d never seen this type of WhatApp scam before, I decided to investigate.

Sometimes it takes some effort, especially when the domain is blocked for fraud by your favorite security software, but nothing was going to stop me now from looking for my new-found wealth.

To fully understand the message, it’s good to know that USTD stands for Tether, a cryptocurrency referred to as a stablecoin because its value is pegged to a flat currency. In the case of USTD the flat currency is the US dollar. The link makes a stablecoin’s value less volatile than that of other cryptocurrencies, which is attractive for traders that like to switch quickly between cryptocurrencies and flat currencies.

So, I visited the domain which, no surprise there, turned out to be a fake trading platform. I tried the login credentials which were so kindly provided to me.

Once logged in I checked my wallet and lo and behold, I’m rich! (Or “Jay” is.)

The wallet belongs to Csy926 who has VIP5 access and contains 1658670.31 USDT or $602,494.07.

I can either recharge, withdraw, or transfer my USDT tokens or transfer the cold hard cash in dollars. Knowing that in this type of scam the victim always has to invest a—relatively–small amount to get the bait, I knew what to expect.

The easiest way would have been if I could transfer the dollars to a bank account, so I tried that first.

Sadly, there were obstacles:

• Transfers can only be done to other accounts on the platform and the recipient needs to be at least a VIP1 level.
• Only VIP members can transfer without a key. Assuming Jay is the one with the key, it’s a good thing that the account has a VIP5 status.

So, to be a recipient of a US$ amount, I’ll need a VIP1 level account on the same platform.

Sadly, that’s not me. So I decided to see what I can do with the USDT tokens.

The form shows a security tip warning users to fill in their withdrawal account accurately, as assets can’t be returned after transferring them out. That sucks for Jay.

But all in all, that looks promising, but again there are some problems.

• I’ll need a TRC20 wallet. A TRC20 wallet app is an application, accessible on mobile/web or desktop devices, designed specifically for storing, managing, and engaging with TRC20 tokens.
• Once I filled out the form and clicked on Withdraw, it turned out I needed a key.

Looks like it’s time to read the FAQs. Fortunately, this has the answers to all the “right” questions.

Long story short. You set the key when you open the account, and it cannot be retrieved. But…..if you have two VIP accounts you can transfer funds from the old account to your new account. And there is no need for a KEY if you have a VIP account. Considering Jay has a VIP5 account there lies an opportunity.

And here comes the catch all of our regular readers saw coming by now, VIP accounts that are able to receive funds cost money. The cheapest—VIP1—requires a deposit of 50 USDT (roughly $50) which is not refundable and can’t be canceled. But with a VIP1 account I can only receive $30 per month and it’s only valid for 2 months. So, that’s not a big help when you are as rich as I am, sorry, Jay is.

It would take me until the next ice age—4600 years—to transfer the entire amount at that rate, with the off chance that the rightful owner would drain the account or change the password as soon as they noticed the leak.

Any unsuspecting victim that has come this far and is willing to steal from the treasure dropped in their lap, now realizes that before they can enjoy all that money, they first:

1. Need to open a new account.
2. Make a deposit to turn it into a VIP account. The amount depends on their greed and impatience because the higher the VIP level, the larger the amount you can transfer in one day and per month.
3. Transfer the funds from Jay’s account to their own account.
4. Set up a TRC20 account.
5. Withdraw the money from the new account to their TRC20 wallet.

We decided not to sponsor the scammers, so this is as far as we were willing to go, but we have a distinct feeling that along the steps we outlined there might be other fees and deposits needed.

Don’t fall for scammers

• Any unsolicited WhatsApp message from an unknown person is suspect. No matter how harmless or friendly it may seem. Most pig butchering scams start with what seems a misdirected message.
• Don’t follow links that reach you in any unexpected way, and certainly not from an untrusted source.
• If it’s too good to be true, then it’s very likely not true.
• Scammers bank on the fact that the more time and money you have invested, the more determined you will become to get to the desired end result.
• Use a web filtering app to shield you from known malicious websites. Preferably Malwarebytes Premium or Malwarebytes Browser Guard.

We don’t just report on threats—we remove them

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.