The US and four of its closest allies have warned that “evolving intelligence” shows that Russia is contemplating cyber-attacks on countries backing Ukraine, as the Kremlin’s frustration grows at its failure to make military gains. Vladimir Putin used the launch on Wednesday of a powerful new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), capable of carrying ten or…

The metaverse is coming — and it’ll be here sooner than you might think. Gartner forecasts that by 2026, a quarter of people will spend at least an hour a day in the metaverse. This is great news for businesses, as it will unlock new business models and ways of working that will add value…

Hacking, which involves gaining unauthorized access to data in a computer system or individual unit, is used to exploit weaknesses in computer systems or networks, either to harm organizations or governments or to steal online assets. In 2021, a hack impacted the Colonial Pipeline system in Houston, Texas. The system carries gasoline and jet fuel…

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has not gone to plan. As sanctions sink their teeth deeper into the Russian economy, and battlefield losses continue to pile up, the Russian leader has found himself with yet another headache, one that just months ago would have seemed absurd. Since the invasion began on February 24, Russia has…

Kevin Thomas, a New York state senator, has introduced a new bill amendment that would establish some offenses related to rug pulls and other frauds with virtual tokens as official crimes, a report says. The bill, SB S8839, would call for defining, penalizing and criminalizing frauds targeted at developers and projects that would defraud crypto investors. The…

Crypto exchange Binance has recovered a small fraction of the $622 million stolen from Sky Mavis’s Ethereum sidechain Ronin last month, according to a tweet by exchange CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao early this morning. Sky Mavis is the developer team behind the popular play-to-earn crypto game Axie Infinity. Zhao tweeted that the North Korean hacking…

Ukraine’s national post service said some of its systems went offline Friday because of a cyberattack following the much-publicized sale of stamps depicting a Ukrainian soldier giving the middle finger to the Russian warship Moskva, which sank last week. Director General Ihor Smilianskyi said that Ukrposhta, the postal service, had been hit by a distributed denial-of-service…

Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms have gained a lot of traction in recent years. Unfortunately, they have also gained a lot of attention from bad actors. Indeed, cryptocurrency transfers from illegal digital wallets to DeFi platforms skyrocketed nearly 2,000% between 2020 and 2021 alone, according to research from Chainalysis. Although malfeasance may be waning, the use of…

Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said on Thursday that global supply chains had proved to be unstable amid the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine and called for a reshaping of trade relationships oriented around “trusted partners,” even if it meant higher costs for businesses and consumers. Ms. Yellen spoke at a news conference during the…

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a 37-year-old man on Wednesday it says defrauded more than a dozen victims out of a total of $1.8 million in a long-running crypto mining scam. Between March 2019 and September 2021, officials say Chester “Chet” Stojanovich posed as a dealer of crypto mining equipment, convincing his would-be customers…

Cryptocurrency exchange service Binance has announced that it will deactivate user accounts in Russia amid Moscow’s war with Ukraine. In a statement on Thursday, the company said Russian residents and Russian companies that hold crypto assets worth over 10,000 euros will be banned from making any deposits and trading within their accounts. “Accounts that classify under this…

Between export bans and the numerous entities and individuals now restricted from transacting in the global economy, organizations worldwide must evaluate the legal, reputational, and cybersecurity impacts on their supply chain. How can companies navigate the current landscape and mitigate their supply chain and cyber risks? Sanctions against Russia continue to evolve rapidly, as governments…

The US and four of its closest allies have warned that “evolving intelligence” shows that Russia is contemplating cyber-attacks on countries backing Ukraine, as the Kremlin’s frustration grows at its failure to make military gains. Vladimir Putin used the launch on Wednesday of a powerful new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), capable of carrying ten or…

A security analyst in Pinellas Park, Florida (about a 15-minute drive from our office in downtown St. Petersburg) was arrested for stealing well over half a million dollars in cryptocurrency from a client. But unlike many other crypto theft cases, this incident isn’t the result of a complex cyber attack or even a phishing scam.…

Ireland’s Ministry for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is drafting rules that would ban political parties from accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as donations. Local Government Minister Darragh O’Brien, who oversees elections and voting reform, put together a task force in January to recommend laws to maintain electoral integrity. Of specific concern was shielding the country…

The coordinator for the UN body monitoring enforcement of sanctions on North Korea said on Wednesday a stepped-up focus was needed on cybercrime, which had become fundamental to Pyongyang’s ability to finance its banned weapons programs. Eric Penton-Voak, of the UN Security Council’s Panel of Experts on North Korea, noted that despite the widest sanctions…

On April 10, 2020, Atlanta-based fintech firm Brightwell was navigating more than the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. It all started with a series of customer phone calls. That morning sometime between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., Brightwell received word from the customer service team that customers called to complain about missing funds, says Ernie Moran, at the…

While the culture and buzz surrounding Web3 can be overwrought, it’s more than hype: after all, the concept has won enthusiastic support from Silicon Valley giants and venture firms alike. Unfortunately, there is a darker side to the technology, that has been overlooked, especially when it comes to Web3’s novel file-exchange format: NFTs. Despite lofty…

In this video for Help Net Security, Michael Aminov, Chief Architect at Perception Point, talks about a recent Binance impersonation attack and, more broadly, the ongoing threat landscape impacting the cryptocurrency industry. Cryptocurrencies aren’t new, but they have become more mainstream: their use has increased significantly thanks to DeFi, gaming, NFTs, etc. In fact, according to…

A new report by blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace highlights the growing role that privacy-focused cryptocurrencies such as Monero are playing in the rising tide of ransomware. “Current Trends in Ransomware” delves into trends observed during 2021 but was only released this week. The firm revealed there was almost a 500% increase in “double extortion” ransomware attacks…

Russia is now the most-attacked country in the world and Russian citizens, who make up less than 2% of the global population, now constitute almost a fifth of all cyberattack victims. In fact, five times more Russian accounts were breached in March than in January as cyberattacks have ramped up significantly in 2022. Why? Anonymous declared…

Countries such as Russia and Iran may eventually use cryptocurrency mining to evade sanctions, the International Monetary Fund warned in a report. There’s a risk that sanctioned nations will leverage their energy resources — which can’t be exported — to power mining, an energy-intensive process of validating coin transactions, the IMF said. By expanding their mining…

NATO’s large, multiday cyber defense exercise is set to bring together technical experts from alliance countries and Ukraine nearly two months after Russia’s invasion. The annual cyber wargames, known as the Locked Shields exercise, will start Tuesday in Tallinn, Estonia. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence organizes the event, which includes…

What a difference a year makes. The U.S. inflation rate was at 1.4 percent when Joe Biden was sworn in as President in January 2021. In just fifteen months, it has since risen rapidly to a 40-year high of 8.5 percent, the result of global supply chain issues. Many hoped that those issues would resolve themselves…

For modern enterprises, cybersecurity is key to success. Rapid digital innovation, fuelled by the pandemic, has led to countless new ways to connect with customers, employees and partners. However, it’s also seen the emergence of a multitude of new opportunities for cyber-criminals to gain access to data and take remote control of the critical business…

From Microsoft to AT&T to Home Depot, more companies are accepting cryptocurrency as a way to pay for products and services. This makes perfect sense as crypto coins are a viable revenue source. Perhaps the time is ripe for businesses to learn how to receive, process and convert crypto payments into fiat currency. Still, many questions…

The U.S. government has observed North Korean cyber actors targeting a variety of organizations in the blockchain technology and cryptocurrency industry, including cryptocurrency exchanges, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, play-to-earn cryptocurrency video games, cryptocurrency trading companies, venture capital funds investing in cryptocurrency, and individual holders of large amounts of cryptocurrency or valuable non-fungible tokens (NFTs). They…