ANALYSTS SPOT A WAVE OF SVB-RELATED CYBER FRAUD STRIKING THE BUSINESS SECTOR BY NATE NELSON

Hackers have reportedly been developing phishing campaigns in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's failure by "incorporating SVB-relevant content into their existing, proven tactics that create a sense of urgency when their victims are distracted and less alert." More than 62 new domains have been registered that reference payments, a bailout, or try to mimic legitimate SVB domains, and 200 phishing attacks have been observed, primarily against targets in the United States. Read more about the new phishing campaigns and how organizations should prepare for them in the full story from Dark Reading.

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POLICE SHUT DOWN CRYPTOCURRENCY MIXER LINKED TO LAUNDERING MORE THAN $3 BILLION IN CRIMINAL FUNDS BY TONYA RILEY

A cryptocurrency mixer responsible for processing transactions worth more than $3 billion linked to criminal activity was shut down by European and U.S. law enforcement officials this past week. The mixer, known as ChipMixer, served as a critical node in laundering money from criminal schemes--including $700 million in bitcoin from North Korean hackers alone--and attracted a significant clientele, according to a Justice Department press release. The operation to shut down ChipMixer included the court-authorized seizure of two domains and a GitHub account belonging to ChipMixer by U.S. law enforcement and the seizure of back-end services and more than $46 million in cryptocurrency by German authorities.

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TIKTOK "A LOADED GUN" SAYS NSA BY PIETER ARNTZ

The White House backed legislation introduced by a dozen senators that gives President Biden's administration new powers to identify and stop any technology from China or other adversaries from entering the US if it is deemed a national security risk, including giving Commerce Department the ability to ban TikTok and other foreign-based technologies. TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company Bytedance, was dubbed "a loaded gun" by General Paul Nakasone, Director of the National Security Agency (NSA), at a US Senate hearing this past Wednesday, where FBI Director Christopher Wray laid out the FBI's three top concerns about the social media platform.

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FBI WARNS OF SPIKE IN ‘PIG BUTCHERING’ CRYPTO INVESTMENT SCHEMES BY SERGIU GATLAN

A recent escalation in 'pig butchering' cryptocurrency investment schemes has resulted in over $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency lost to cyber criminals, as reported by victims in the U.S. last year. In said pig butchering scams, the fraudsters will approach victims via dating platforms, messaging apps, or social media platforms to build trust and introduce them to an investment scheme that will eventually allow them to empty the targets' crypto wallets. The problem has gotten so much worse, in fact, that according to the FBI's annual Internet Crime Report, cryptocurrency investment fraud rose from $907 million in 2021 to $2.57 billion in 2022, an increase of 183%. 

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GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AND DEFENSE CONTRACTORS STILL HAVE GOT BAD PASSWORDS, REPORT SAYS BY CHRIS RIOTTA

SpyCloud's 2023 Identity Exposure Report found that breaches impacting .gov emails rose by nearly 14% compared to the previous year and that an estimated 61% of government employees with more than one password exposed in the last year had reused passwords across multiple accounts, indicating poor cyber hygiene. And even more concerningly, the top three passwords associated with exposed government email accounts were "123456," "12345678," and "password." Read more about the report's findings in the full story from FCW.

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