Commentary The United States is awash in crime. Rather staggeringly, as I have shown elsewhere, 11 of the world’s 50 most dangerous cities are now in the United States. Of all the various crimes plaguing the country, identity theft is the fastest-growing form of criminal activity. In 2021, according to a recent report by Javelin Strategy and…

LONDON/WASHINGTON—A global ransomware outbreak has scrambled servers belonging to Florida’s Supreme Court and several universities in the United States and Central Europe, according to a Reuters analysis of ransom notes posted online to stricken servers. Those organizations are among more than 3,800 victims of a fast-spreading digital extortion campaign that locked up thousands of servers…

WASHINGTON—The FBI and international partners have at least temporarily disrupted the network of a prolific ransomware gang they infiltrated last year, saving victims including hospitals and school districts a potential $130 million in ransom payments, Attorney General Merrick Garland and other U.S. officials announced Thursday. “Simply put, using lawful means we hacked the hackers,” Deputy…

A government team of hackers tasked with testing the Department of the Interior’s cyber vulnerabilities cracked more than 16 percent of the department’s 85,000 passwords in 90 minutes, a new report reveals. An unclassified Jan. 3 report (pdf) from the Inspector General for Audits, Inspections, and Evaluations found that the department’s password protection and use…

COPENHAGEN—Hackers have disrupted access to the websites of Denmark’s central bank and seven private banks in the country this week, according to the central bank and an IT firm that serves the industry. The websites of the central bank and Bankdata, a company that develops IT solutions for the financial industry, were hit by so-called…

It was recently revealed that a security loophole within Google Home speakers allowed hackers to snoop on conversations. A bug allowed hackers to install a backdoor account on a Google Home smart speaker device and use it via remote control to eavesdrop on unsuspecting owners by accessing its microphone feed, reported Bleeping Computer. Security researcher Matt…

SEOUL—North Korean regime-backed hackers referenced the deadly Halloween crush in Seoul to distribute malware to users in South Korea, Google’s Threat Analysis group said in a report. The malware was embedded in Microsoft Office documents which purported to be a government report on the tragedy that killed more than 150 people after tens of thousands…

A trending “invisible challenge” on TikTok is being used by hackers to steal users’ passwords, credit card data, and Discord accounts, according to a report. The TikTok challenge sees users film themselves naked while using the video-sharing site’s “Invisible Body” filter to blur out the body, making it appear invisible. The latest trend on TikTok, which is…

Florida’s Department of Health announces new guidance regarding mRNA Covid-19 vaccines. This after a study found an 84%increase in cardiac-related deaths among males 18 to 39 within 28 days following mRNA vaccination. Hackers take down several U.S. airport websites. Find out what’s known about the Monday cyber attacks. The price of pork in the U.S….

Suspected Chinese hackers tampered with widely used software distributed by a small Canadian customer service company, another example of a “supply chain compromise” made infamous by the hack on U.S. networking company SolarWinds. U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said in a blog post it had discovered malicious software being distributed by Vancouver-based Comm100, which provides customer…