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Law & Order

An Epic Crack in Apple’s Walled Garden

posted onSeptember 13, 2021
by l33tdawg
Credit: Flickr

On Friday, after a contentious legal battle over Apple’s alleged monopoly power over the iOS ecosystem, a California judge snipped the tug-of-war rope between Apple and Epic Games. Both sides can claim some victory. Epic Games must pay over $3.5 million to Apple after violating its developer agreements by circumventing its payment processor. And Apple must change its App Store rules to allow developers to use other payment systems⁠—a blow to Apple’s iron grip on the iOS ecosystem.

US Extradites Ukrainian Man for Using Botnet to Crack Thousands of Passwords

posted onSeptember 9, 2021
by l33tdawg
Credit: PC Mag

The US has charged a Ukrainian man for using an army of computers to help him crack thousands of login passwords each week.

On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced it had extradited 28-year-old Glib Oleksandr Ivanov-Tolpintsev for carrying out the hacking crimes. Ivanov-Tolpintsev allegedly operated a botnet, a collection of computers that were secretly taken over through malware. The various machines were then used to guess login passwords belonging to users across the globe.

Ten-year hacktivist fugitive Commander X arrested in Mexico

posted onJune 16, 2021
by l33tdawg
Credit: Arstechnica

A decade after Chris "Commander X" Doyon skipped out on a federal hacking charge and fled the country, the long arm of US law enforcement this week stretched out its hand and plucked him from Mexico City, where he had claimed political asylum. Doyon now faces all of the original charges for coordinating a 2010 High Orbit Ion Cannon (HOIC) DDoS attack on servers belonging to Santa Cruz, California, plus a serious new charge for jumping bail.

'High-level' organiser of FIN7 hacking group sentenced to ten years in prison

posted onApril 19, 2021
by l33tdawg
Credit: Bank Info Security

A "high-level manager" of  the FIN7 hacking group has been sentenced to ten years in prison. The US Department of Justice described Ukranian national Fedir Hladyr, 35, as a systems administrator for the FIN7 hacking group.

He was arrested in Germany, in 2018 at the request of U.S. law enforcement and was extradited to Seattle. In September 2019, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit computer hacking.

Julian Assange Lays Out His Case Against US Extradition

posted onSeptember 7, 2020
by l33tdawg
Credit: Wired

Fifteen long months have passed since Julian Assange was physically pulled out of London's Ecuadorean embassy and taken to the United Kingdom's Belmarsh prison. There, he's since awaited an even grimmer prospect: Extradition to the US to face charges of a criminal hacking conspiracy and violations of the Espionage Act.

Epic Games' Lawsuit Fires a Shot at Apple's App Store 'Monopoly'

posted onAugust 13, 2020
by l33tdawg
Credit: Wired

Fortnite creator Epic Games launched a spear at Apple’s gatekept iOS App Store market today with a lawsuit filed in the US District Court of Northern California. The move aligns with the developer’s years-long quest to disrupt digital marketplaces and their associated fees—and comes as Apple has faced increased antitrust scrutiny on Capitol Hill.

Russian Cybercrime Boss Burkov Pleads Guilty

posted onJanuary 28, 2020
by l33tdawg
Credit: Krebs on Security

Aleksei Burkov, an ultra-connected Russian hacker once described as “an asset of supreme importance” to Moscow, has pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to running a site that sold stolen payment card data and to administering a highly secretive crime forum that counted among its members some of the most elite Russian cybercrooks.