Software security (3)
Five alleged leaders of Black Axe's South African operations were extradited to the United States on September 11 to face charges tied to romance scams and advance-fee fraud between 2011 and 2021. All five are Nigerian nationals, aged 38 to 57, arrested in South Africa in 2021.
The men appeared before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp in Trenton, New Jersey, on September 14. Perry Osagiede, 57, is named in the indictment as founder and zonal head of Black Axe's Cape Town Zone. Prosecutors say the group used fake identities to trick victims into sending money, and sometimes threatened to release sensitive photos when targets refused.
Maximum penalties reach 62 years, but only for the two defendants charged on all four counts. Wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy each carry up to 20 years, and aggravated identity theft adds a mandatory two. The Justice Department stresses that the indictment contains accusations only and that all five are presumed innocent.
Source: CyberScoop
Five alleged leaders of Black Axe's South African operations were extradited to the United States on September 11 to face charges tied to romance scams and advance-fee fraud between 2011 and 2021. All five are Nigerian nationals, aged 38 to 57, arrested in South Africa in 2021.
The men appeared before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp in Trenton, New Jersey, on September 14. Perry Osagiede, 57, is named in the indictment as founder and zonal head of Black Axe's Cape Town Zone. Prosecutors say the group used fake identities to trick victims into sending money, and sometimes threatened to release sensitive photos when targets refused.
Maximum penalties reach 62 years, but only for the two defendants charged on all four counts. Wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy each carry up to 20 years, and aggravated identity theft adds a mandatory two. The Justice Department stresses that the indictment contains accusations only and that all five are presumed innocent.
Source: CyberScoop
Amazon's threat intelligence team successfully disrupted a sophisticated credential theft campaign by APT29, the Russian intelligence-linked hacking group behind the 2020 SolarWinds attack. The operation compromised legitimate websites to inject malicious code that redirected 10% of visitors to fake Cloudflare verification pages.
Once there, users were tricked into entering email addresses and authorizing attackers' devices to access their Microsoft accounts through a rare "device code authentication" technique. APT29 used Amazon EC2 instances and other cloud infrastructure to blend with legitimate traffic.
Despite the group's attempts to migrate infrastructure after detection, Amazon continued tracking and disrupting their operations. Security experts recommend organizations review Microsoft's device authentication guidance and consider disabling the feature if unnecessary.
Source: Dark Reading
Amazon's threat intelligence team successfully disrupted a sophisticated credential theft campaign by APT29, the Russian intelligence-linked hacking group behind the 2020 SolarWinds attack. The operation compromised legitimate websites to inject malicious code that redirected 10% of visitors to fake Cloudflare verification pages.
Once there, users were tricked into entering email addresses and authorizing attackers' devices to access their Microsoft accounts through a rare "device code authentication" technique. APT29 used Amazon EC2 instances and other cloud infrastructure to blend with legitimate traffic.
Despite the group's attempts to migrate infrastructure after detection, Amazon continued tracking and disrupting their operations. Security experts recommend organizations review Microsoft's device authentication guidance and consider disabling the feature if unnecessary.
Source: Dark Reading
