Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, Author at TechCrunch

Hacker claims to have 30 million customer records from Australian ticket seller giant TEG

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 20:00:00 +0000

A hacker is advertising customer data allegedly stolen from the Australia-based live events and ticketing company TEG on a well-known hacking forum. On Thursday, a hacker put up for sale the alleged stolen data from TEG, claiming to have information of 30 million users, including the full name, gender, date of birth, username, hashed passwords […]

US government sanctions Kaspersky executives

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 15:55:04 +0000

The U.S. government announced sanctions against 12 executives and senior leaders of the Russia-based cybersecurity giant Kaspersky. In a press release, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it designated the 12 company executives to protect internet users against malicious cyber threats. “Today’s action against the leadership of Kaspersky Lab […]

US bans sale of Kaspersky software citing security risk from Russia

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 20:15:00 +0000

U.S. officials imposed the “first of its kind” ban arguing that Kaspersky threatens U.S. national security because of its links to Russia.

Security bug allows anyone to spoof Microsoft employee emails

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 17:46:52 +0000

A researcher has found a bug that allows anyone to impersonate Microsoft corporate email accounts, making phishing attempts look credible and more likely to trick their targets. As of this writing, the bug has not been patched. To demonstrate the bug, the researcher sent an email to TechCrunch that looked like it was sent from […]

The mystery of an alleged data broker’s data breach

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 14:17:58 +0000

Since April, a hacker with a history of selling stolen data has claimed a data breach of billions of records — impacting at least 300 million people — from a U.S. data broker, which would make it one of the largest alleged data breaches of the year. The data, seen by TechCrunch, on its own appears […]

UK and Canada privacy watchdogs investigating 23andMe data breach

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 15:11:14 +0000

Privacy watchdogs in the U.K. and Canada have launched a joint investigation into the data breach at 23andMe last year. On Monday, the U.K,’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) announced their investigation into the genetic testing company, saying the organizations will leverage “the combined resources and […]

Bangladeshi police agents accused of selling citizens’ personal information on Telegram

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, Zulkarnain Saer Khan — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 02:00:00 +0000

Two senior police officials in Bangladesh are accused of collecting and selling citizens' personal information to criminals on Telegram.

Hacked, leaked, exposed: Why you should never use stalkerware apps

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Fri, 31 May 2024 21:05:00 +0000

Using stalkerware is creepy, unethical, potentially illegal, and puts your data and that of your loved ones in danger.

Hackers steal $305M from DMM Bitcoin crypto exchange

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Fri, 31 May 2024 16:38:53 +0000

Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin confirmed on Friday that it had been the victim of a hack resulting in the theft of 4,502.9 bitcoin, or about $305 million. According to crypto security firm Elliptic, this is the eighth largest crypto theft in history. DMM Bitcoin said it detected “an unauthorized leak of Bitcoin (BTC) from […]

Rock band’s hidden hacking-themed website gets hacked

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Tue, 28 May 2024 17:37:44 +0000

On Friday, Pal Kovacs was listening to the long-awaited new album from rock and metal giants Bring Me the Horizon when he noticed a strange sound at the end of the record’s last track. Being a fan of solving riddles and breaking encrypted codes, Kovacs wondered, Does this sound contain a hidden message? His hunch […]

Conservative cell carrier Patriot Mobile hit by data breach

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Tue, 21 May 2024 15:22:24 +0000

U.S. cell carrier Patriot Mobile experienced a data breach that included subscribers’ personal information, including full names, email addresses, home ZIP codes and account PINs, TechCrunch has learned. Patriot Mobile, which reportedly has fewer than 100,000 subscribers, bills itself as “America’s only Christian conservative wireless provider and our mission is to passionately defend our God-given […]

Healthcare company WebTPA discloses breach affecting 2.5 million people

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Fri, 17 May 2024 14:44:15 +0000

A Texas-based company that provides health insurance and benefit plans disclosed a data breach affecting almost 2.5 million people, some of whom had their Social Security number stolen. WebTPA said in a data breach notice published earlier this month that the company detected “evidence of suspicious activity” on December 28, 2023, which prompted the company […]

Ireland privacy watchdog confirms Dell data breach investigation

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Thu, 16 May 2024 15:33:15 +0000

A top European privacy watchdog is investigating following the recent breaches of Dell customers’ personal information, TechCrunch has learned. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) deputy commissioner Graham Doyle confirmed to TechCrunch that the DPC has received “a breach notification on this matter” — referring to Dell — which is “currently under assessment.” Asked to elaborate, […]

FBI seizes hacking forum BreachForums — again

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Wed, 15 May 2024 19:43:25 +0000

The FBI along with a coalition of international law enforcement agencies seized the notorious cybercrime forum BreachForums on Wednesday. For years, BreachForums has been a popular English-language forum for hackers and cybercriminals who wanted to advertise, sell and trade stolen data. Just recently, a threat actor advertised Dell customers’ personal information and data stolen from […]

Threat actor scraped Dell support tickets, including customer phone numbers

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Tue, 14 May 2024 16:47:31 +0000

The person who claimed to have stolen the physical addresses of 49 million Dell customers appears to have taken more data from a different Dell portal, TechCrunch has learned. The newly compromised data includes names, phone numbers and email addresses of Dell customers. This personal data is contained in customer “service reports,” which also include […]

Threat actor says he scraped 49M Dell customer addresses before the company found out

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Fri, 10 May 2024 16:03:35 +0000

The person who claims to have 49 million Dell customer records told TechCrunch that he brute-forced an online company portal and scraped customer data, including physical addresses, directly from Dell’s servers. TechCrunch verified that some of the scraped data matches the personal information of Dell customers. On Thursday, Dell sent an email to customers saying […]

Dell discloses data breach of customers’ physical addresses

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Thu, 09 May 2024 15:06:41 +0000

Technology giant Dell notified customers on Thursday that it experienced a data breach involving customers’ names and physical addresses. In an email seen by TechCrunch and shared by several people on social media, the computer maker wrote that it was investigating “an incident involving a Dell portal, which contains a database with limited types of […]

Encrypted services Apple, Proton and Wire helped Spanish police identify activist

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Wed, 08 May 2024 19:38:48 +0000

As part of an investigation into people involved in the pro-independence movement in Catalonia, the Spanish police obtained information from the encrypted services Wire and Proton, which helped the authorities identify a pseudonymous activist, according to court documents obtained by TechCrunch. Earlier this year, the Spanish police Guardia Civil sent legal requests through Swiss police […]

What we learned from the indictment of LockBit’s mastermind

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Tue, 07 May 2024 17:31:00 +0000

Five takeaways from the indictment of Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, the hacker who U.S. and U.K. authorities accuse of being the mastermind of the LockBit ransomware gang.

US, UK police identify and charge Russian leader of LockBit ransomware gang

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Tue, 07 May 2024 14:38:00 +0000

The identity of the leader of one of the most infamous ransomware groups in history has finally been revealed. On Tuesday, a coalition of law enforcement led by the U.K.’s National Crime Agency announced that Russian national, Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, 31, is the person behind the nickname LockBitSupp, the administrator and developer of the LockBit […]