News in the Legal category

Russians hacked JFK airport’s taxi dispatch system for profit

Two U.S. citizens were arrested for allegedly conspiring with Russian hackers to hack the John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) taxi dispatch system to move specific taxis to the front of the queue in exchange for a $10 fee.
- Bill Toulas
- December 21, 2022
- 01:29 PM
- 2
Epic Games to pay $520 million for privacy violations, dark patterns

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, will pay $520 million to settle allegations of violating children's privacy laws and using dark patterns to trick millions of gamers into making unintentional in-game purchases.
- Sergiu Gatlan
- December 19, 2022
- 10:27 AM
- 2
Woman gets 66 months in prison for role in $3.3 million ID fraud op

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have announced today that a 24-year-old woman from Melbourne, arrested in 2019 for her role in large-scale, cyber-enabled identity theft crimes, was sentenced to five years and six months in prison.
- Bill Toulas
- December 16, 2022
- 12:03 PM
- 0
Suspects arrested for hacking US networks to steal employee data

Four men suspected of hacking into US networks to steal employee data for identity theft and the filing of fraudulent US tax returns have been arrested in London, UK, and Malmo, Sweden, at the request of the U.S. law enforcement authorities.
- Bill Toulas
- December 06, 2022
- 02:18 PM
- 0
Police arrest 55 members of 'Black Panthers' SIM Swap gang

The Spanish National Police have arrested 55 members of the 'Black Panthers' cybercrime group, including one of the organization's leaders based in Barcelona.
- Bill Toulas
- December 02, 2022
- 10:29 AM
- 1
Australia will now fine firms up to AU$50 million for data breaches

The Australian parliament has approved a bill to amend the country's privacy legislation, significantly increasing the maximum penalties to AU$50 million for companies and data controllers who suffered large-scale data breaches.
- Bill Toulas
- November 30, 2022
- 12:26 PM
- 1
US bans sales of Huawei, Hikvision, ZTE, and Dahua equipment

The United States government, through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has banned the sale of equipment from Chinese telecommunications and video surveillance vendor Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua due "unacceptable risks to national security".
- Bill Toulas
- November 28, 2022
- 09:18 AM
- 2
U.S. charges Russian suspects with operating Z-Library e-Book site

Anton Napolsky (33) and Valeriia Ermakova (27), two Russian nationals, were charged with intellectual property crimes linked to Z-Library, a pirate online eBook repository.
- Bill Toulas
- November 17, 2022
- 08:04 AM
- 3
Influencer 'Hushpuppi' gets 11 years in prison for cyber fraud

An Instagram influencer known as 'Hushpuppi' has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for conspiring to launder tens of millions of USD from business email compromise (BEC) scams and various cyber schemes.
- Bill Toulas
- November 08, 2022
- 09:39 AM
- 1
Russia labels Meta an 'extremist' org, sends legal threats to users

Rosfinmonitoring, Russia's Federal Financial Monitoring Service, has added Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to its list of terrorists and extremists.
- Bill Toulas
- October 11, 2022
- 12:25 PM
- 2
Meta sues app dev for stealing over 1 million WhatsApp accounts

Meta has sued several Chinese companies doing business as HeyMods, Highlight Mobi, and HeyWhatsApp for developing and allegedly using "unofficial" WhatsApp Android apps to steal over one million WhatsApp accounts starting May 2022.
- Sergiu Gatlan
- October 06, 2022
- 02:03 PM
- 0
Police arrest teen for using leaked Optus data to extort victims

The AFP (Australian Federal Police) have arrested a 19-year-old man in Sydney and charged him for allegedly using leaked Optus customer data for extortion.
- Bill Toulas
- October 06, 2022
- 02:44 AM
- 2
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
Tax fraud ring leader jailed for selling children’s stolen identities

The owner of a fraudulent tax preparation business, Ariel Jimenez, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for selling the stolen identities of children on welfare and helping "customers" to falsely claim tax credits, causing tens of millions of dollars in tax loss.
- Sergiu Gatlan
- September 13, 2022
- 01:14 PM
- 0
Police arrest man for laundering tens of millions in stolen crypto

The Dutch police arrested a 39-year-old man on suspicions of laundering tens of millions of euros worth of cryptocurrency stolen in phishing attacks.
- Bill Toulas
- September 13, 2022
- 11:42 AM
- 0
HP will pay customers for blocking non-HP ink cartridges in EU

HP printer owners forced to use HP ink and toner cartridges in Europe will receive compensation from the vendor for not adequately informing them about the limitations of the devices they bought.
- Bill Toulas
- September 12, 2022
- 01:24 PM
- 1
Coinbase funds lawsuit against Tornado Cash cryptomixer sanctions

Coinbase announced on Tuesday that it is funding a lawsuit brought by six people in the U.S. against the Department of Treasury's for the sanctions on the Tornado Cash open-source cryptocurrency mixer platform.
- Bill Toulas
- September 09, 2022
- 02:45 PM
- 4
Pirate sites ban in Austria took down Cloudflare CDNs by mistake

Excessive and indiscriminate blocking is underway in Austria, with internet service providers (ISPs) complying to a court order to block pirate sites causing significant collateral damage.
- Bill Toulas
- August 29, 2022
- 12:22 PM
- 1
Mobile store owner hacked T-Mobile employees to unlock phones

A former owner of a T-Mobile retail store in California has been found guilty of a $25 million scheme where he illegally accessed T-Mobile's internal systems to unlock and unblock cell phones.
- Bill Toulas
- August 02, 2022
- 11:02 AM
- 0
Meta, US hospitals sued for using healthcare data to target ads

A class action lawsuit has been filed in the Northern District of California against Meta (Facebook), the UCSF Medical Center, and the Dignity Health Medical Foundation, alleging that the organizations are unlawfully collecting sensitive healthcare data about patients for targeted advertising.
- Bill Toulas
- July 30, 2022
- 10:12 AM
- 5