san.com - Data stolen by a ransomware gang has exposed highly sensitive information from a Louisiana sheriff’s office, including the names, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers of confidential informants in criminal investigations. Straight Arrow News obtained a copy of the data from DDoSecrets, a non-profit that archives hacked and leaked documents in the public interest.
Medusa, a suspected Russian cybercrime group, said on its Dark Web blog in April 2024 that it had pilfered more than 90 gigabytes of data from the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office initially claimed the intrusion had been quickly detected and stopped, allowing the hackers to obtain only a limited amount of data, such as “screenshots of file folders and still images from video files, WBRZ-TV reported.
65,000 files
A sample of the stolen files shared at the time by Medusa included payroll information, showing that the breach was more substantial than first claimed by the sheriff’s office. Medusa threatened to release all of the data, which contains over 65,000 files, unless the sheriff’s office paid $300,000. There’s no indication the ransom was ever paid.
The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment from SAN.
SAN’s analysis of the full data cache provides an insight into just how damaging the breach was. Given the sensitivity of the data, DDoSecrets is only sharing it with approved journalists, researchers and defense attorneys practicing in Baton Rouge.
The data covers both the banal day-to-day operations of a law enforcement agency and the potentially life-and-death details of drug cases and other criminal investigations.
“The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office data is an extraordinary example of the inner workings of a police department, down to Internal Affairs investigations and details about the use of confidential informants,” DDoSecrets co-founder Emma Best told SAN. “While the police are obviously of public interest and deserve no privacy, their targets and victims do. With that in mind, we’re refraining from republishing the full data to the public while encouraging journalists and civil rights advocates to engage with it.”
Best said the data cache was posted by Medusa to the messaging app Telegram, but that their channels were repeatedly shut down. The contents of the breach have not been extensively reported on until now.
Law enforcement entities are common targets for ransomware gangs. In 2021, the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., was hacked by a Russian-speaking ransomware group known as Babuk, resulting in the leak of 250 gigabytes of data after the department refused to pay a ransom. The data also included sensitive information on informants and police officers.
Confidential informants
Contracts signed by 34 confidential informants in 2023 are among the exposed data from Louisiana.
A document titled “CI Information” lists the names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of 200 confidential informants involved in narcotics investigations. Names of deputies overseeing informants and case numbers are included, as well as whether the informants are still active. Deactivation dates, indicating when an informant’s work ended, range from 2020 to 2023.
A folder titled “C.I. G.P.S. routes” contains numerous images of maps detailing the movements of informants across Baton Rouge.
Seized devices
A document last edited in August 2023 lists devices seized by the sheriff’s office, primarily mobile phones. The document notes whether a warrant had been requested or obtained, as well as additional steps that may have been needed to access a device’s contents.
Several phones were turned over to the FBI, the data indicates. Some files mention that cellphone hacking tools were needed to pull data from the devices. Files refer to both Cellebrite, an Israeli company that produces tools for extracting data from mobile devices, and GrayKey, a mobile forensics tool developed by the US-based company Grayshift that similarly unlocks and extracts data from phones.
The data also shows that the Drug Enforcement Agency sought access to historical location data and other information from a target’s cell phone.
Cell phone surveillance
Pen trap and trace search warrants — court orders that allow law enforcement to collect cell phone metadata such as numbers dialed — were issued to cellular service providers T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon.
Many of the warrants mention the use of a “cell site simulator,” also known as an IMSI catcher, to reveal a suspect’s whereabouts. Cell site simulators, commonly referred to as Stingrays, are devices that mimic cell phone towers and can be used to pinpoint the location of specific phones.
Sock puppet accounts
A presentation about online investigations advises officers to create “sock puppet accounts,” a term used to describe a false online identity created to conceal an individual’s real one.
For instance, deputies were told to use a free VPN browser add-on for Google Chrome to hide their IP addresses. The website thisxdoesnotexist.com is also listed as a resource for deputies to create AI-generated images of everything from fake people to resumes.
Hidden cameras and drones
A folder titled “Tech” includes brochures listing an array of surveillance technology, such as GPS trackers and hidden cameras that can be placed inside items such as clothing, vape pens and Newport menthol cigarette packs.
A list of hidden cameras contains IP addresses, login credentials for remote access and identifying information for both the devices and SIM cards used.
One list shows 19 drones operated by the sheriff’s office, the majority of which are made by the Chinese manufacturer DJI. The drones are used by several divisions of the sheriff’s office, including SWAT and narcotics, for suspect apprehension and search and rescue missions.
A PowerPoint presentation in the data cache shows the default password used to access the internal system for logging drone usage. A folder titled “Operation Photos & Videos” shows both surveillance of criminal suspects as well as overhead images of sheriff’s deputies at a shooting range.
Internal affairs
Internal affairs data, including complaints made against the sheriff’s office, accuse deputies of racial profiling, unwarranted searches and excessive force.
Incidents range from a deputy being reprimanded for letting his 10- and 12-year-old children drive his patrol vehicle to another being arrested for battery and suspended for 30 days after being involved in a “road rage-type” episode.
Polygraph results
Other files detail the results of polygraph tests given to both deputies and suspects.
One file graphically details an alleged sexual assault and concludes that the person being tested had been deceitful. A deputy was also accused of being deceitful after being asked whether he’d referred to homosexuals as “disgusting” when discussing a fellow deputy believed to be gay.
reuters.com - July 30 (Reuters) - More than 90 state and local governments have been targeted using the recently revealed vulnerability in Microsoft server software, according to a U.S. group devoted to helping local authorities collaborate against hacking threats.
The nonprofit Center for Internet Security, which houses an information-sharing group for state, local, tribal, and territorial government entities, provided no further details about the targets, but said it did not have evidence that the hackers had broken through.
None have resulted in confirmed security incidents," Randy Rose, the center's vice president of security operations and intelligence, said in an email.
A wave of hacks hit servers running vulnerable versions of Microsoft SharePoint this month, causing widespread concern. The campaign has claimed at least 400 victims, according to Netherlands-based cybersecurity firm Eye Security. Multiple federal government agencies are reportedly among the victims, and new ones are being identified every day.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for one of the U.S. Department of Energy's 17 national labs said it was among those hit.
"Attackers did attempt to access Fermilab's SharePoint servers," the spokesperson said, referring to the U.S. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. "The attackers were quickly identified, and the impact was minimal, with no sensitive or classified data accessed." The Fermilab incident was first reported by Bloomberg.
The U.S. Department of Energy has previously said the SharePoint security hack has affected "a very small number" of its systems
nytimes.com (29.07.2025) - Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota activated the National Guard to help the city of St. Paul address a cyberattack that was detected last Friday.
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota on Tuesday activated the state National Guard to help officials in St. Paul, the capital, respond to a complex cyberattack that was first detected on Friday.
Mayor Melvin Carter of St. Paul said the city had shut down the bulk of its computer systems as a defensive measure as state and federal investigators tackled what he called “a deliberate, coordinated digital attack, carried out by a sophisticated external actor.”
Mr. Carter said that the F.B.I. and several state agencies were helping assess who was behind the attack. He declined to say whether ransom had been demanded or whether there was any evidence suggesting a foreign government was behind the attack.
City officials said they have yet to ascertain whether sensitive data had been stolen.
Emergency services, including police response systems, were not crippled by the attack, the city said in a statement. The shutdown meant that city employees did not have access to the internet in municipal buildings, and that routine services such as library loans and online payment systems were inaccessible.
Large and small cities across the United States, along with school systems and hospitals, have been targeted in cyberattacks in recent years. Such attacks are often carried out by individuals who compromise networks and encrypt data, then demand ransom payments in order to restore access.
Attackers sometimes steal sensitive data — such as credit card information — that they can later sell online.
St. Paul officials said they detected unusual activity on their network Friday morning and eventually realized the city’s networks had been breached. Deeming it a serious attack, they sought help from the governor and federal law enforcement agencies as well as cybersecurity companies.
Mr. Walz issued an executive order on Tuesday directing the National Guard to assign military computer experts to assist officials in St. Paul. In the order, Mr. Walz said that “the scale and complexity of this incident exceeded both internal and commercial response capabilities.”
therecord.media - Prosecutors said Chapman helped the North Korean IT workers obtain jobs at 309 companies, including a major television network, a car maker, a media company, a Silicon Valley technology company and more.
A U.S. District Court judge sentenced an Arizona woman to eight and a half years in prison for running a laptop farm used by North Korea’s government to perpetrate its IT worker scheme.
Christina Chapman pleaded guilty in February to wire fraud, money laundering and identity theft after the FBI discovered she was an instrumental cog in a wider campaign to get North Koreans hired in six-figure IT roles at prominent companies.
Prosecutors said Chapman helped the North Korean IT workers obtain jobs at 309 companies, including a major television network, a car maker, a media company, a Silicon Valley technology company and more. Members of the same group unsuccessfully tried to get employed at two different U.S. government agencies.
After North Korean officials obtained employment using fake identities, work laptops were sent to a home owned by Chapman, where she enabled the workers to connect remotely to the U.S. companies’ IT networks on a daily basis.
The FBI seized more than 90 laptops from Chapman’s home during an October 2023 raid. In addition to hosting the laptops and installing software that allowed the North Koreans to access them remotely, she also shipped 49 laptops to locations overseas, including multiple shipments to a Chinese city on the North Korean border.
In total, Chapman’s operation helped generate $17 million for the North Korean government. Security companies and law enforcement have not said how many laptop farms they estimate are scattered across North America and Europe but the DOJ called Chapman’s case “one of the largest North Korean IT worker fraud schemes charged by the Department of Justice.”
Her part of the operation involved 68 stolen identities and she reported millions in income to the IRS under the names of the people who had their identity stolen.
She forged payroll checks with the fake identities and typically managed the wages received from U.S. companies through direct deposit. She would then transfer the earnings to people overseas.
District Court Judge Randolph Moss ordered the 50-year-old Chapman to serve a 102-month prison term and three years of supervised release. She will have to forfeit nearly $300,000 that she planned to send to North Korea before her arrest and will pay a fine of more than $175,000.
Chapman was arrested last May as part of a wider takedown of North Korea’s scheme to have hundreds of their citizens hired at unwitting U.S. companies in IT positions.
Chapman was initially charged alongside a 27-year-old Ukrainian, Oleksandr Didenko, for helping at least three workers who operated under the aliases Jiho Han, Chunji Jin and Haoran Xu. The three were hired as software and applications developers with companies in a range of sectors and industries.
U.S. State Department officials said the three North Koreans assisted by Chapman and Didenko “are linked to the DPRK’s Munitions Industry Department, which oversees the development of the DPRK’s ballistic missiles, weapons production, and research and development programs.”
Didenko was arrested in Poland last year and the U.S. is seeking his extradition.
securityweek.com - DragonForce says it stole more than 150 gigabytes of data from US department store chain Belk in a May cyberattack
The DragonForce ransomware gang has claimed responsibility for a disruptive cyberattack on US department store chain Belk.
The incident was identified on May 8 and prompted Belk to disconnect affected systems, restrict network access, reset passwords, and rebuild impacted systems, which disrupted the chain’s online and physical operations for several days. The company’s online store is still offline at the time of publication.
Belk’s investigation into the attack determined that hackers had access to its network between May 7 and May 11, and that they exfiltrated certain documents, including files containing personal information.
In a data breach notification submitted to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, Belk said at least names and Social Security numbers were compromised in the attack.
The company is providing the impacted individuals with 12 months of free credit monitoring and identity restoration services, which also include up to $1 million identity theft insurance.
The company has not named the group responsible for the attack, but the DragonForce ransomware gang has claimed the incident on Monday, adding Belk to its Tor-based leak site.
propublica.org - The Pentagon bans foreign citizens from accessing highly sensitive data, but Microsoft bypasses this by using engineers in China and elsewhere to remotely instruct American “escorts” who may lack expertise to identify malicious code.
Microsoft is using engineers in China to help maintain the Defense Department’s computer systems — with minimal supervision by U.S. personnel — leaving some of the nation’s most sensitive data vulnerable to hacking from its leading cyber adversary, a ProPublica investigation has found.
The arrangement, which was critical to Microsoft winning the federal government’s cloud computing business a decade ago, relies on U.S. citizens with security clearances to oversee the work and serve as a barrier against espionage and sabotage.
But these workers, known as “digital escorts,” often lack the technical expertise to police foreign engineers with far more advanced skills, ProPublica found. Some are former military personnel with little coding experience who are paid barely more than minimum wage for the work.
For many years, data brokers have existed in the shadows, exploiting gaps in privacy laws to harvest our information—all for their own profit. They sell our precise movements without our knowledge or meaningful consent to a variety of private and state actors, including law enforcement agencies. And they show no sign of stopping.
This incentivizes other bad actors. If companies collect any kind of personal data and want to make a quick buck, there’s a data broker willing to buy it and sell it to the highest bidder–often law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
One recent investigation by 404 Media revealed that the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), a data broker owned and operated by at least eight major U.S. airlines, including United Airlines and American Airlines, collected travelers’ domestic flight records and secretly sold access to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Despite selling passengers’ names, full flight itineraries, and financial details, the data broker prevented U.S. border forces from revealing it as the origin of the information. So, not only is the government doing an end run around the Fourth Amendment to get information where they would otherwise need a warrant—they’ve also been trying to hide how they know these things about us.
ARC’s Travel Intelligence Program (TIP) aggregates passenger data and contains more than one billion records spanning 39 months of past and future travel by both U.S. and non-U.S. citizens. CBP, which sits within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), claims it needs this data to support local and state police keeping track of people of interest. But at a time of growing concerns about increased immigration enforcement at U.S. ports of entry, including unjustified searches, law enforcement officials will use this additional surveillance tool to expand the web of suspicion to even larger numbers of innocent travelers.
More than 200 airlines settle tickets through ARC, with information on more than 54% of flights taken globally. ARC’s board of directors includes representatives from U.S. airlines like JetBlue and Delta, as well as international airlines like Lufthansa, Air France, and Air Canada.
In selling law enforcement agencies bulk access to such sensitive information, these airlines—through their data broker—are putting their own profits over travelers' privacy. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently detailed its own purchase of personal data from ARC. In the current climate, this can have a detrimental impact on people’s lives.
The unknown individual contacted at least five government officials, including three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor and a member of Congress, according to a State Department cable.
An impostor pretending to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio contacted foreign ministers, a U.S. governor and a member of Congress by sending them voice and text messages that mimic Rubio’s voice and writing style using artificial intelligence-powered software, according to a senior U.S. official and a State Department cable obtained by The Washington Post.
U.S. authorities do not know who is behind the string of impersonation attempts but they believe the culprit was probably attempting to manipulate powerful government officials “with the goal of gaining access to information or accounts,” according to a cable sent by Rubio’s office to State Department employees.
Using both text messaging and the encrypted messaging app Signal, which the Trump administration uses extensively, the impostor “contacted at least five non-Department individuals, including three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and a U.S. member of Congress,” said the cable, dated July 3.
The impersonation campaign began in mid-June when the impostor created a Signal account using the display name “Marco.Rubio@state.gov” to contact unsuspecting foreign and domestic diplomats and politicians, said the cable. The display name is not his real email address.
“The actor left voicemails on Signal for at least two targeted individuals and in one instance, sent a text message inviting the individual to communicate on Signal,” said the cable. It also noted that other State Department personnel were impersonated using email.
When asked about the cable, the State Department responded that it would “carry out a thorough investigation and continue to implement safeguards to prevent this from happening in the future.” Officials declined to discuss the contents of the messages or the names of the diplomats and officials who were targeted.
The Scattered Spider hacking group has caused chaos among retailers, insurers, and airlines in recent months. Researchers warn that its flexible structure poses challenges for defense.
Empty grocery store shelves and grounded planes tend to signal a crisis, whether it’s an extreme weather event, public health crisis, or geopolitical emergency. But these scenes of chaos in recent weeks in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada were caused instead by financially motivated cyberattacks—seemingly perpetrated by a collective of joyriding teens.
A notorious cybercriminal group often called Scattered Spider is known for using social engineering techniques to infiltrate target companies by tricking IT help desk workers into granting them system access. Researchers say that the group seems to gain expertise about the backend systems commonly used by businesses in a particular industry and then uses this knowledge to hit a cluster of targets before moving on to another sector. The group often deploys ransomware or conducts data extortion attacks once it has compromised its victims.
Amid increasing pressure from law enforcement last year, which culminated in charges and arrests of five suspects allegedly linked to Scattered Spider, researchers say that the group was less active in 2024 and seemed to be attempting to lay low. The group’s escalating attacks in recent weeks, though, have shown that, far from being defeated, Scattered Spider is emboldened once again.
“There are some uniquely skilled actors in Scattered Spider when it comes to social engineering, and they have identified a major gap in our security systems that they’re successfully taking advantage of,” says John Hultquist, chief analyst in Google’s threat intelligence group. “This group is carrying out serious attacks on our critical infrastructure, and I hope that we’re not missing the opportunity to address the most imminent threat.”
Though a number of incidents have not been publicly attributed, an overwhelming spree of recent attacks on UK grocery store chains, North American insurers, and international airlines has broadly been tied to Scattered Spider. In May, the UK’s National Crime Agency confirmed it was looking at Scattered Spider in connection to the attacks on British retailers. And the FBI warned in an alert on Friday that it has observed “the cybercriminal group Scattered Spider expanding its targeting to include the airline sector.” The warning came as North American airlines Westjet and Hawaii Airlines said they had been victims of cybercriminal hacks. On Wednesday, the Australian airline Qantas also said it had been hit with a cyberattack, though it was not immediately clear if this attack was part of the group’s campaign.
WASHINGTON, June 30 (Reuters) - Iran-linked hackers have threatened to disclose more emails stolen from U.S. President Donald Trump's circle, after distributing a prior batch to the media ahead of the 2024 U.S. election.
In online chats with Reuters on Sunday and Monday, the hackers, who go by the pseudonym Robert, said they had roughly 100 gigabytes of emails from the accounts of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan, Trump adviser Roger Stone and porn star-turned-Trump antagonist Stormy Daniels.
July 1, 2025
WASHINGTON Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating Aeza Group, a bulletproof hosting (BPH) services provider, for its role in supporting cybercriminal activity targeting victims in the United States and around the world. BPH service providers sell access to specialized servers and other computer infrastructure designed to help cybercriminals like ransomware actors, personal information stealers, and drug vendors evade detection and resist law enforcement attempts to disrupt their malicious activities. OFAC is also designating two affiliated companies and four individuals who are Aeza Group leaders. Finally, in coordination with the United Kingdom’s (UK) National Crime Agency (NCA), OFAC is designating an Aeza Group front company in the UK.
“Cybercriminals continue to rely heavily on BPH service providers like Aeza Group to facilitate disruptive ransomware attacks, steal U.S. technology, and sell black-market drugs,” said Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith. “Treasury, in close coordination with the UK and our other international partners, remains resolved to expose the critical nodes, infrastructure, and individuals that underpin this criminal ecosystem.”
Today’s action is being taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13694, as further amended, and builds on OFAC’s February action targeting ZServers BPH. Today’s action also reflects Treasury’s continued work to combat cybercrime and degrade the support networks that enable malicious actors to target U.S. citizens, technology, and critical industries.
AEZA GROUP: KEY TECHNICAL SUPPORT FOR RANSOMWARE GROUPS, CYBERCRIME, AND ILLICIT DRUGS
Aeza Group, headquartered in St. Petersburg, Russia, has provided BPH services to ransomware and malware groups such as the Meduza and Lumma infostealer operators, who have used the hosting service to target the U.S. defense industrial base and technology companies, among other victims globally. Infostealers are often used to harvest personal identifying information, passwords, and other sensitive credentials from compromised victims. These credentials are then often sold on darknet markets for profit, making infostealer operators a key piece of the cybercrime ecosystem.
Aeza Group has also hosted BianLian ransomware, RedLine infostealer panels, and BlackSprut, a Russian darknet marketplace for illicit drugs. Darknet drug marketplaces allow for the anonymous purchase and shipment of narcotics over the internet, making them a present and increasing contributor to drug trafficking to the United States and worldwide. According to Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and its supplemental advisory on fentanyl, criminal organizations use darknet marketplaces to sell precursor chemicals and manufacturing equipment used for the synthesis of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, as well as to traffic fentanyl and other narcotics into the United States.
OFAC is designating Aeza Group pursuant to E.O. 13694, as further amended by E.O. 14144 and E.O. 14306, for being responsible or complicit in, or having engaged in, directly or indirectly, cyber-enabled activities originating from, or directed by persons located, in whole or in part, outside the United States that are reasonably likely to result in, or have materially contributed to, a threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States, and that have the purpose of or involve causing a misappropriation of funds or economic resources, intellectual property, proprietary or business confidential information, personal identifiers, or financial information for commercial or competitive advantage or private financial gain.
Aeza International Ltd. is the United Kingdom branch of Aeza Group. Aeza Group uses Aeza International to lease IP addresses to cybercriminals, including Meduza infostealer operators.
Aeza Logistic LLC and Cloud Solutions LLC are Russia-based subsidiaries that are 100% owned by Aeza Group. Servers BPH.
A cartel affiliate notified an FBI agent about a hacker who infiltrated cameras and phones to track an FBI official’s meetings, the DOJ inspector general said.
A hacker working on behalf of the Sinaloa drug cartel infiltrated cameras and phones to track an FBI official in Mexico investigating the drug lord El Chapo, then used data from that surveillance to kill and intimidate potential sources and witnesses the agent was meeting with, a Justice Department watchdog report revealed.
An FBI case agent learned about the hacker from someone affiliated with the cartel in 2018, according to the inspector general report released Friday.
“That individual said the cartel had hired a ‘hacker’ who offered a menu of services related to exploiting mobile phones and other electronic devices,” the report states. “According to the individual, the hacker had observed people going in and out of the United States Embassy in Mexico City and identified ‘people of interest’ for the cartel, including the FBI Assistant Legal Attache (ALA T), and then was able to use the ALA T’s mobile phone number to obtain calls made and received, as well as geolocation data, associated with the ALAT’s phone.
If the United States wishes to compete in cyberspace, it must compete against China to secure its offensive cyber supply chain.
Strategic competition between the United States and China has long played out in cyberspace, where offensive cyber capabilities, like zero-day vulnerabilities, are a strategic resource. Since 2016, China has been turning the zero-day marketplace in East Asia into a funnel of offensive cyber capabilities for its military and intelligence services, both to ensure it can break into the most secure Western technologies and to deny the United States from obtaining similar capabilities from the region. If the United States wishes to compete in cyberspace, it must compete against China to secure its offensive cyber supply chain.
This report is the first to conduct a comparative study within the international offensive cyber supply chain, comparing the United States’ fragmented, risk-averse acquisition model with China’s outsourced and funnel-like approach.
Key findings:
Hacktivist attacks surge on U.S. targets after Iran bombings, with groups claiming DDoS hits on military, defense, and financial sectors amid rising tensions.
The U.S. has become a target in the hacktivist attacks that have embroiled several Middle Eastern countries since the start of the Israel-Iran conflict.
Several hacktivist groups have claimed DDoS attacks against U.S. targets in the wake of U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites on June 21.
The attacks—most notably from hacktivist groups Mr Hamza, Team 313, Cyber Jihad, and Keymous+—targeted U.S. Air Force domains, major U.S. Aerospace and defense companies, and several banks and financial services companies.
The cyberattacks follow a broader campaign against Israeli targets that began after Israel launched attacks on Iranian nuclear and military targets on June 13. Israel and Iran have exchanged missile and drone strikes since the conflict began, and Iran also launched missiles at a U.S. military base in Qatar on June 23.
The accompanying cyber warfare has included DDoS attacks, data and credential leaks, website defacements, unauthorized access, and significant breaches of Iranian banking and cryptocurrency targets by Israel-linked Predatory Sparrow. Electronic interference with commercial ship navigation systems has also been reported in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf.
AI firm DeepSeek is aiding China's military and intelligence operations, a senior U.S. official told Reuters, adding that the Chinese tech startup sought to use Southeast Asian shell companies to access high-end semiconductors that cannot be shipped to China under U.S. rules.
The U.S. conclusions reflect a growing conviction in Washington that the capabilities behind the rapid rise of one of China's flagship AI enterprises may have been exaggerated and relied heavily on U.S. technology.
Hangzhou-based DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the technology world in January, saying its artificial intelligence reasoning models were on par with or better than U.S. industry-leading models at a fraction of the cost.
"We understand that DeepSeek has willingly provided and will likely continue to provide support to China's military and intelligence operations," a senior State Department official told Reuters in an interview.
"This effort goes above and beyond open-source access to DeepSeek's AI models," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to speak about U.S. government information.
The U.S. government's assessment of DeepSeek's activities and links to the Chinese government have not been previously reported and come amid a wide-scale U.S.-China trade war.
One of the largest food distributors in the U.S. reported a cyberattack to regulators on Monday, explaining that the incident has disrupted its operations and ability to fulfil customer orders.
United Natural Foods released a public statement and filed documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) saying the cyberattack began on June 5.
The statement said the Rhode Island-based company identified unauthorized activity on its systems on Thursday, prompting officials to take systems offline. The action “has temporarily impacted the Company’s ability to fulfill and distribute customer orders.”
“The incident has caused, and is expected to continue to cause, temporary disruptions to the Company’s business operations,” United Natural Foods said. “The Company has implemented workarounds for certain operations in order to continue servicing its customers where possible. The Company is continuing to work to restore its systems to safely bring them back online.”
Law enforcement has been notified and the company said it has hired a cybersecurity firm to remediate the incident. The investigation into the attack “remains ongoing and is in its early stages.”
The press statement published on Monday said the company is working closely with “customers, suppliers, and associates” to minimize the disruption. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
United Natural Foods is the main supplier for Whole Foods and is considered the largest health and specialty food distributor in the United States and Canada. The company reported $8.2 billion in net sales last quarter.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced today the seizure of approximately 145 darknet and traditional internet domains, and cryptocurrency funds associated with the BidenCash marketplace. The operators of the BidenCash marketplace use the platform to simplify the process of buying and selling stolen credit cards and associated personal information.
BidenCash commenced operations in March 2022. BidenCash administrators charged a fee for every transaction conducted on the website. The BidenCash marketplace had grown to support over 117,000 customers, facilitated the trafficking of over 15 million payment card numbers and personally identifiable information, and generated over $17 million in revenue during its operations.
The BidenCash marketplace domains will no longer be operational and will be redirected to a U.S. law enforcement-controlled server, preventing future criminal activity on these sites. The marketplace also sold compromised credentials that could be used to access computers without proper authorization.
Between October 2022 and February 2023, the BidenCash marketplace published 3.3 million individual stolen credit cards for free to promote the use of their services. The stolen data included credit card numbers, expiration dates, Card Verification Value (CVV) numbers, account holder names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers.
According to court records, the United States obtained court authorization to seize cryptocurrency funds that BidenCash marketplace used to receive illicit proceeds from its illegal sales.
Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; John Szydlik, Resident Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Frankfurt Resident Office; and Philip Russell, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office, made the announcement.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service’s Frankfurt Resident Office, the U.S. Secret Service’s Cyber Investigative Section, and the FBI Albuquerque Field Office.
The Department of Justice thanks the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit, The Shadowserver Foundation and Searchlight Cyber for their assistance with the investigation.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Zoe Bedell in these matters.
A LinkedIn message drew a former waitress in Minnesota into a type of intricate scam involving illegal paychecks and stolen data
Christina Chapman looked the part of an everyday American trying to make a name for herself in hustle culture.
In prolific posts on her TikTok account, which grew to more than 100,000 followers, she talked about her busy life working from home with clients in the computer business and the fantasy book she had started writing. She posted about liberal political causes, her meals and her travels to see her favorite Japanese pop band.
Yet in reality the 50-year-old was the operator of a “laptop farm,” filling her home with computers that allowed North Koreans to take jobs as U.S. tech workers and illegally collect $17.1 million in paychecks from more than 300 American companies, according to federal prosecutors.
In a June 2023 video, she said she didn’t have time to make her own breakfast that morning—“my clients are going crazy,” she said. Then she describes the açaí bowl and piña colada smoothie she bought. As she talks, at least 10 open laptops are visible on the racks behind her, their fans audibly whirring, with more off to the side.
In 2023, Christina Chapman posted a TikTok that had racks of laptops visible in the background. The Wall Street Journal highlighted the laptops in this clip of the video.
Chapman was one of an estimated several dozen “laptop farmers” that have popped up across the U.S. as part of a scam to infiltrate American companies and earn money for cash-strapped North Korea. People like Chapman typically operate dozens of laptops meant to be used by legitimate remote workers living in the U.S.
What the employers—and often the farmers themselves—don’t realize is that the workers are North Koreans living abroad but using stolen U.S. identities. Once they get a job, they coordinate with someone like Chapman who can provide some American cover—accepting deliveries of the computer, setting up the online connections and helping facilitate paychecks. Meanwhile the North Koreans log into the laptops from overseas every day through remote-access software.
Chapman fell into her role after she got a request on LinkedIn to “be the U.S. face” for a company that got jobs for overseas IT workers, according to court documents. There’s no indication that she knew she was working with North Koreans.
Enterprise management solutions provider Serviceaide has informed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that a data leak impacts the personal and medical information of nearly half a million Catholic Health patients.
California-based Serviceaide, whose solutions are used by organizations worldwide, discovered in November 2024 that an Elasticsearch database maintained for one of its customers, Buffalo, New York-based non-profit healthcare system Catholic Health, had been inadvertently made publicly available.
An investigation showed that the database had been exposed between September 19 and November 5, 2024.
While Serviceaide did not find any evidence that the information was exfiltrated, the company said it cannot definitively rule it out.
According to a data breach notice posted on the Serviceaide website, the exposed information varies for each individual, but it can include name, SSN, date of birth, medical record number, patient account number, medical information, health insurance information, prescription and treatment information, clinical information, healthcare provider details, email or username, and password.
Impacted individuals are being notified and offered 12 months of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services.
Serviceaide informed the HHS, according to the government organization’s incident tracker, that just over 483,000 individuals are impacted by the data breach.
It’s not uncommon for healthcare data breaches to impact hundreds of thousands of individuals, and some incidents affect millions and even tens of millions.
Dear Friends, Neighbors, and Valued Cellcom/Nsight Customers,
Over the past five days, many of you have been impacted by a service disruption — and I want to begin by saying something simple, and deeply meant: I’m here.
While I’ve been closely involved from the very beginning, this is the first time I’m writing to you directly. That wasn’t because I didn’t want to — it was because I truly believed we’d be past this quickly. I stayed focused on the fix, confident that we’d be able to restore service fast.
We’ve always believed in being present, open, and accountable to the people we serve. That’s what this letter is about.
We experienced a cyber incident. While this is unfortunate, it’s not something we were unprepared for. We have protocols and plans in place for exactly this kind of situation. From the start, we’ve followed those plans — including engaging outside cybersecurity experts, notifying the FBI and Wisconsin officials, and working around the clock to bring systems safely back online.
The incident was concentrated on an area of our network separate from where we store sensitive information related to you, our Cellcom/Nsight family. We have no evidence that personal information related to you, your name, your addresses, your financial information, is impacted by this event.
Thanks to an incredible amount of hard work and tenacity, we achieved a major milestone last night. We are building on that success and expect to have the rest of service restored this week. Every part of this recovery is being handled with care and precision — we will not rush anything that compromises safety, security or trust.
For 115 years, as a company that began as a local telephone provider, we've understood that connection is everything. Generations of my family have had the privilege of serving generations of yours. We've grown and changed with the times, but our purpose has always remained the same: helping you stay connected to what matters most. We know this disruption has caused frustration and, for some, real hardship — and for that, I am truly sorry.
In the midst of it all, I’ve witnessed what makes this company special. Across the organization, people put mission ahead of role, put pride aside, and put the community first. We saw teams find creative solutions, take personal initiative, and step outside the bounds of job descriptions to make things right. That spirit — of care, urgency and accountability — has defined our response and will continue to shape our path forward.
To our employees — thank you. Your heart and grit during these trying days make me proud beyond words.
To our customers — thank you. Your patience, understanding and kindness mean the world to us. We’ve felt your support every step of the way, and we don’t take it for granted.
We know that gratitude alone isn’t enough — we’re taking responsibility. We’re covering the time you were without service, and then some.
Please know that we hear you, we appreciate you, and you have the very best team in the world on the case. I know we will be a better and stronger Cellcom/Nsight for this experience.
Warmly,
Brighid Riordan in cursive
Brighid Riordan
