I was glad to see this: eBay is paying a $59 million settlement after the U.S. Department of Justice proved pill press machines were being sold on the site. Yep, those devices can make fake, maybe fentanyl-laced, pills. How eBay could let this crap be sold in the first place is beyond me. Shame on them.
Operation Cookie Monster brought down a massive hacker marketplace - See if your info was there
Scammers never run out of tricks, and this one’s a doozy: They’re using AI to impersonate you. Here’s why you need to change your voicemail setting right now.
Getting ahold of your voice is one thing, but once a hacker gets into your computer, they can wreak all sorts of havoc and truly ruin your life.
There’s good news on that front, though. Law enforcement agencies around the world just brought down Genesis Market, an online marketplace that bought and sold hacked user data. Score one for the good guys!
Mass arrests
A reported 119 people were arrested as part of Operation Cookie Monster. Yes, that’s the real name!
The Department of Justice says Genesis Market offered access to stolen data from over 1.5 million computers containing over 80 million account access credentials. If your login was breached in the past five years, it probably ended up on Genesis.
Law enforcement seized 11 domains used by Genesis Market to support its infrastructure. The main login page was replaced with a takedown notice, containing information to contact the FBI.
An international effort
The FBI worked with agencies from 17 different countries to take down the hacker ring. Suspects from around the world, including ones in the U.S., were taken in by police.
It’s nice when the world can come together against a common enemy!
A crooked one-stop shop
This was quite the operation. Since 2018, Genesis Market sold access to “fingerprints,” aka all the identifying data stored on a computer. Buyers could then impersonate that user and get into personal accounts like eBay, Dropbox, PayPal, Microsoft, Twitter, Fidelity and crypto exchanges.
Meta didn't inform members of a Facebook group that a killer was stalking them
Your online accounts are always at risk from hackers, but sometimes you won’t even know that you’ve been compromised. Tap or click here to check if anyone has access to your Facebook, Google or Netflix accounts.
It’s not just privacy and personal information at risk when you’re on social media. Criminals of all types troll these platforms looking for victims, sometimes with deadly intentions.
If you connected your bank account to Venmo, Robinhood or another financial app, you may be entitled to a settlement
App users are often blissfully unaware of just how much technology is involved in making an application work correctly. For every function, there are heaps of coding. Want to know more? This hands-on training can help.
Hackers selling info on 148 million voters - Here's what you can do
Intelligence agencies have identified attempts by two foreign governments to interfere in the 2020 Presidential Election. According to reports from the Department of Justice, Iran and Russia — both of which oppose U.S. interests — have worked to sow discord and break down trust in the election process.
Two countries could have your voting records - Watch for fake emails
It finally happened. After months of warnings, foreign attempts at election interference have been detected by American intelligence agencies. And unlike in 2016, these efforts go beyond simple Facebook memes and hacked documents.
Chrome 'bug' is collecting your data even when it's not supposed to be - Here's the fix
It’s finally happened: The Department of Justice has filed a landmark antitrust suit against Google over its domination of the online search and ad industry. DOJ claims Google’s corporate behavior is anticompetitive, and that its online practices threaten any alternative services from gaining a foothold.
6 ways to protect your Amazon account from scammers
We hear a good amount of news about fraud on the web, and how criminals behind these scams manage to get away with stealing millions of dollars or multiple terabytes of data. Especially now, during the age of COVID-19, online fraud is more pervasive than ever.
How hackers took over Twitter - and the lesson we can learn from it
At Komando.com, helping our readers stay protected from hackers and scams is one of our biggest priorities. These cybercrimes have already done billions of dollars in damage over the past few years, and in recent months, they’ve only increased in frequency.