Author Archive
French Authorities Talk Up Digital Investigations
By Francois Paget at 1 October, 2010, 12:11 pm
This week in Troyes, France, the University of Technology hosted the fourth French-Speaking Days on Digital Investigations, designed for investigators, prosecuting attorneys, and legal experts in charge of fighting cybercrimes. All the participants in the congress were members of the AFSIN, the Francophone Association for Digital Investigation.
In addition to the usual presentations on improving the [...]
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Loading ...How Much Does My Identity Cost? (the Sequel)
By Francois Paget at 1 September, 2010, 5:48 am
Two weeks ago, I posted a blog entry talking about the counterfeiting of legal documents. I have received many comments and requests for further data related to this type of fraud from various Eastern Europe countries, France, and even the United States. Aside from journalists, for whom it is their job, many people have contacted [...]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...How Much Does My Identity Cost?
By Francois Paget at 23 August, 2010, 11:02 am
Phishing and identity theft involve not only the theft of funds. In addition to financial data, information collected by cybercriminals also can allow them to create and sell false legal documents.
On top of selling malware, renting botnets, or launching denial-of-service attacks, supplying falsified documents is another well-paid online activity. I visited such a business just [...]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Prolific Carder Arrested in France
By Francois Paget at 12 August, 2010, 12:16 pm
On August 7, the French Police National Aux Frontiers arrested Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin at the Nice airport when he attempted to board a flight to Moscow. This 27-year-old citizen of both Israel and the Ukraine lived, according to rumors, on the French Riviera. At the time of the arrest, the authorities said, he was carrying [...]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Odd Magazine: Disinformation at Play?
By Francois Paget at 9 July, 2010, 12:51 pm
Since the end of June, the media have been talking about a possible new magazine distributed by Al-Qaeda and promoted on various Islamic websites. One reason I was interested by this document was a message I read in some extremist forums saying it could contain viruses and spyware.
In searching I found two documents. Each had [...]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Malware at Midyear: a Summary
By Francois Paget at 7 July, 2010, 10:59 am
Now that we’ve reached the middle of the year, it’s time to take a look at our malware collection. During the first half of the year, 10 million samples entered in our database. That’s certainly no decrease compared with last year.
With approximately 54,800 new samples arriving per day, the total size of our collection [...]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Inside the Carding Underworld
By Francois Paget at 24 June, 2010, 8:45 am
Carder.cc is a German online forum dedicated to helping criminals in trading stolen credit card and login details obtained via their carding or phishing activities. Because such forums are a source of income for their administrators (who are also involved in this black market), the best-known forums are forever engaged in underground infighting to stay [...]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Facebook Scam: How to Get Rich on the Internet
By Francois Paget at 11 June, 2010, 9:49 am
In one of my Facebook accounts, I received an invitation this morning–from a friend–to join a group named Drop The Internet Stacks of Money And Quit Your Job. This group directs its members to a website that offers an Online Success Kit, which claims to help anyone make some easy extra cash, up to millions [...]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...McAfee Helps FTC, FBI in Case Against ‘Scareware’ Outfit
By Francois Paget at 1 June, 2010, 5:35 pm
In October 2009 during the McAfee FOCUS 09 conference, my colleague Dirk Kollberg gave a talk on Innovative Marketing Ukraine (IMU), a subsidiary of Innovative Marketing, Inc., which the U.S. Federal Trade Commission accused of creating massive “scareware” schemes–-alarming messages falsely claiming that scans had detected viruses, spyware, and illegal pornography on consumers’ computers.
For a [...]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...An Overview of Exploit Packs
By Francois Paget at 29 May, 2010, 12:01 am
Today’s cybercriminals frequently use “exploit packs” to easily snare victims for their botnets. Users with underprotected computers who visit booby-trapped websites become the latest botnet zombies. I often receive requests asking me which exploit packs are current and which vulnerabilities they use.
To answer these inquiries, I’ve created a table that lists the exploits referenced by [...]
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