Police bust pirate streaming service making €250 million per month
An international law enforcement operation has dismantled a pirate streaming service that served over 22 million users worldwide and made €250 million ($263M) per month. Italy’s Postal and Cybersecurity Police Service announced the action, codenamed “Taken Down,” stating they worked with Eurojust, Europol, and many other European countries, making this the largest takedown of its kind in Italy and internationally. “More than 270 Postal Police officers, in collaboration with foreign law enforcement, carried out 89 searches in 15 Italian regions and 14 additional searches in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, Croatia, and China, involving 102 individuals,” reads the announcement.
Cloudflare says it lost 55% of logs pushed to customers for 3.5 hours
Internet security giant Cloudflare announced that it lost 55% of all logs pushed to customers over a 3.5-hour period due to a bug in the log collection service on November 14, 2024. Cloudflare offers an extensive logging service to customers that allows them to monitor the traffic on their site and filter that traffic based on certain criteria. These logs allow customers to analyze traffic to their hosts to monitor and investigate security incidents, troubleshooting, DDoS attacks, traffic patterns, or to perform site optimizations.
Crypto hackers steal $71M in November, bringing yearly total to $1.48B
Cryptocurrency hackers continue damaging the industry’s reputation as the yearly value stolen through cyberattacks nears $1.5 billion. Crypto hackers stole over $71 million worth of digital assets during November, according to an Immunefi report shared with Cointelegraph. This brings the total crypto value stolen to over $1.48 billion year-to-date (YTD) in 2024, according to the report, which stated: “In total, we have seen a loss of $1,489,921,677 to hacks and rug pulls in 2024 YTD across 209 specific incidents. This represents a 15% decrease compared to the same period in 2023, when losses totaled $1,757,680,745.”
Australia is one step away from banning social media for under 16s
Australia is set to ban under 16s from social media services after the Senate passed a bill to that effect by 34 votes to 19. The legislation will return to the House of Representatives, which will need to approve amendments before it becomes law. That is all but a formality as the government holds a majority in that chamber. The bill, which has been fast-tracked, sailed through the lower house in a 102-13 vote earlier this week. The government has said that the likes of Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and X will be subject to the new rules, which won’t come into force for at least 12 months. However, officials still have to confirm which platforms the ban actually covers as they aren’t detailed in the bill. The BBC notes that the country’s communications commissioner, Michelle Rowland, will determine that with help from a so-called eSafety Commissioner. The latter will be responsible for enforcing the law.
Accused Kitchener hacker unmasked after threatening woman online
When the accused Kitchener-based hacker known online as “Waifu” threatened a woman on the messaging app Telegram, it was the beginning of his downfall. ‘Waifu” had been bragging about his criminal exploits in open groups on Telegram. But when he threatened Allison Nixon, the chief research officer at the U.S. cybersecurity firm Unit221B, his days were numbered. Nixon is the co-owner of the U.S.-based cybersecurity firm named after the home address of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, and when she saw the violent threats against her, Nixon tasked one of her researchers to uncover his real identity.
SpyLoan Android malware on Google play installed 8 million times
A new set of 15 SpyLoan apps with over 8 million installs was discovered on Google Play, targeting primarily users from South America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. The apps were discovered by McAfee, a member of the ‘App Defense Alliance,’ and have now been removed from Android’s official app store. However, their presence on Google Play is indicative of the threat actors’ persistence, as even recent law enforcement actions against SpyLoan operators have not curbed the issue, says McAfee.
Interpol nabs thousands, seizes millions in global cybercrime-busting op
Interpol and its financial supporters in the South Korean government are back with another round of anti-cybercrime arrests via the fifth iteration of Operation HAECHI, this time nabbing more than 5,500 people suspected of scamming and seizing hundreds of millions in digital and fiat currencies. HAECHI V, an operation which ran from July to November of this year, was funded by South Korea but involved cooperation with law enforcement in 40 countries. The op targeted seven types of cyber-enabled crime: Romance scams, online sextortion, investment fraud, illegal online gambling, business email compromise, e-commerce fraud, and voice phishing.
