U.S. federal investigators pursuing the ShinyHunters hacking group that recently stole highly sensitive data from the FBI have identified executives at two different ransomware negotiation firms who maintained unusually close relations with the extortion group, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. Sources close to the investigation say one of the executives in the United States even helped ShinyHunters operate a website that pressured victims into paying a ransom.
Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday arrested the co-founder of a Canadian cybersecurity firm in connection with an investigation into the ShinyHunters hacking group that recently relieved the FBI of sensitive data on thousands of agents, multiple sources tell KrebsOnSecurity.
A teenager from Amman, Jordan suspected of leading the prolific data theft and extortion group ShinyHunters has been detained and is reportedly cooperating with the FBI to identify other members of the hacking gang. KrebsOnSecurity has learned that the suspect, who uses the hacker handle “Rey,” was detained as ShinyHunters was in the process of extorting a business unit recently divested by the global aerospace company Boeing, which manufactures the fleet of planes used by the employer of Rey’s father — Royal Jordanian Airlines.
Dutch police said the hacker, arrested for being part of the ShinyHunters cybercriminal gang, had plans to organize the murder of two people on his laptop.
Authorities in the Netherlands have arrested a 23-year-old convicted cybercriminal on suspicion of aiding in data thefts and extortions by the prolific hacker group ShinyHunters. In the days immediately following the suspect’s arrest, remaining ShinyHunters members dramatically escalated their attacks, stealing highly sensitive data from the FBI and extorting the Russian ransomware group Cl0p.
The tech giant warned of a security flaw that a cybercrime gang said it’s exploiting as part of a mass-hacking campaign. Google said it notified more than 100 organizations that had potentially vulnerable servers.
The ShinyHunters hacking gang claims to have compromised the Oracle PeopleSoft servers of more than 100 organizations, including many universities.
The data breach included names, dates-of-birth, postal addresses, and Social Security numbers, according to a state government listing.
U.S. House lawmakers want to know how hackers broke into education tech giant Instructure twice, and stole reams of data from students who use the company’s flagship student data software Canvas.
The maker of the Canvas school software said it “reached an agreement” with the hackers, but provided no guarantees that the hackers would not release the data or keep their word.