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The great Google Ads heist: criminals ransack advertiser accounts via fake Google ads

Malwarebytes

Fuel for other malware and scam campaigns Indicators of Compromise Overview Online criminals are targeting individuals and businesses that advertise via Google Ads by phishing them for their credentials ironically via fraudulent Google ads. This earned Google a whopping $175 billion in search-based ad revenues in 2023.

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FBI Takes Down a Massive Advertising Fraud Ring

Schneier on Security

The charges include wire fraud, computer intrusion, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. Ovsyannikov was arrested last month in Malaysia; Zhukov was arrested earlier this month in Bulgaria; and Timchenko was arrested earlier this month in Estonia, all pursuant to provisional arrest warrants issued at the request of the United States.

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The Internet Enabled Mass Surveillance. AI Will Enable Mass Spying.

Schneier on Security

Before the internet, putting someone under surveillance was expensive and time-consuming. Surveillance has become the business model of the internet, and there’s no reasonable way for us to opt out of it. Mass surveillance ushered in the era of personalized advertisements; mass spying will supercharge that industry.

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Web Hacking Service ‘Araneida’ Tied to Turkish IT Firm

Krebs on Security

Cyber threat analysts at Silent Push said they recently received reports from a partner organization that identified an aggressive scanning effort against their website using an Internet address previously associated with a campaign by FIN7 , a notorious Russia-based hacking group. ” Orn advertising Araneida Scanner in Feb.

Hacking 229
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FBI, Dutch Police Disrupt ‘Manipulaters’ Phishing Gang

Krebs on Security

. “The Saim Raza-run websites operated as marketplaces that advertised and facilitated the sale of tools such as phishing kits, scam pages and email extractors often used to build and maintain fraud operations,” the DOJ explained.

Phishing 251
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Notorious Malware, Spam Host “Prospero” Moves to Kaspersky Lab

Krebs on Security

Last year, the French security firm Intrinsec detailed Prospero’s connections to bulletproof services advertised on Russian cybercrime forums under the names Securehost and BEARHOST. The bulletproof hosting provider BEARHOST. This screenshot has been machine-translated from Russian. Image: cidr-report.org.

Malware 240
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An Interview With the Target & Home Depot Hacker

Krebs on Security

That investigation detailed how the 38-year-old Shefel adopted the nickname Rescator while working as vice president of payments at ChronoPay , a Russian financial company that paid spammers to advertise fake antivirus scams, male enhancement drugs and knockoff pharmaceuticals.

Retail 254