The creator of a tool that was used to steal data from a half-million computers will go to prison for close to five years, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday.
Alex Yucel, 25, of Sweden, pleaded guilty in February in a New York federal court to one count of distributing malicious software. He was sentenced to four and three-quarter years in prison and must forfeit $200,000, according to a news release.
GitHub has been ordered to hand over records on some of its users to taxi-booking app Uber after unsuccessfully challenging a subpoena.
Last month, Uber announced its driver database had been hacked in May 2014, but it had only noticed in September of that year. Uber discovered that a supposedly secret database access key had somehow ended up in a couple of Gists in a public area of GitHub. It's alleged this key was spotted by miscreants who used the key to delve into Uber's internal database of driver names and license plates.
The Israeli arrested on suspicion of hacking into Madonna's computer and leaking unreleased music has been formally indicted.
Five weeks after his arrest in Tel Aviv, 39-year-old Adi Lederman, who three years ago auditioned for Israel's then leading singing competition TV show, Kochav Nolad (A Star Is Born), has been officially charged by Israel's magistrate courts with four counts: computer trespassing, prohibited secret monitoring and additional computer trespassing, copyright Infringement and obstructing investigation.
Back in 2012 the Ramnit worm wriggled its way through social networks and onto the computers of over three million computers, and began to steal sensitive information like bank account details. Now, almost three years later, police have announced that the botnet behind the scourge has been fully shut down.
The Justice Department announced Tuesday a reward of up to $3 million leading to the arrest and/or conviction of the alleged leader of "a tightly knit gang of cybercriminals" who developed the Gameover ZeuS botnet.
Gameover ZeuS siphons passwords to online banking sites from Microsoft Windows computers.
The 24-year-old Swedish co-creator of the Blackshades remote access tool used to hack half a million computers between 2010 and 2013 has pleaded guilty to the distribution of malicious software.
Alex Yücel, who ran the BlackShades organisation from Moldova under the alias ‘marjinz', has dropped an earlier appeal and is now reportedly engaged in a plea deal for a shorter term ahead of his 23 March trial and 22 May sentencing.
While a warrant requirement for e-mail is unlikely to be passed at the federal level anytime soon (despite yet another recently introduced bill), a California state senator wants his home state to do just that. If passed, the bill would extend significant digital privacy rights to the most populous state in America.
On Monday, Mark Leno, a state lawmaker who represents San Francisco, is set to introduce a new bill, called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (CalECPA).
