Federal Bureau of Investigation

Photo: Win McNamee (Getty Images)In one of the FBI’s most sophisticated cybercrime operations to date, agents infiltrated and spent approximately six months embedded in a prominent ransomware gang’s network, Justice Department officials announced Thursday. That gang, known as Hive, was disrupted earlier this week when agents seized its server infrastructure and also took down its website.Speaking Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland characterized Hive as “an international ransomware network responsible for…

Photo: Chip Somodevilla (Getty Images)It’s been a rough few weeks for the U.S. air industry and tech. First, Southwest Airlines was forced to cancel an astounding 16,700 holiday flights due, in part, to outdated scheduling software. Just weeks later the Federal Aviation Administration drastically had to ground all domestic flights because of a corrupted database file in a crucial safety system. Now, a regional airliner has reportedly inadvertently spilled the beans on the U.S.’ no-fly, terrorist watch list. And it’s a…

When federal agents kicked in his door one icy morning last November, Joerg Arnu was still asleep. Roused by deafening bangs and shouts, the 60-year-old retired software developer stumbled out of bed to find a crowd of unfamiliar men in military gear standing in his foyer. At least one of the half dozen men, he remembers, was visibly armed and pointing a gun in his direction. Another was holding a riot shield. “This is the FBI,” one yelled. “Put your hands against the wall!” Less than a minute later, Arnu was being…

Photo: Ralf Liebhold (Shutterstock)Polling the internet: what is the best way to de-anonymize a Tor user? Somebody over at the FBI definitely has a method, but they clearly aren’t planning on telling anybody anytime soon.Motherboard originally reported that the bureau has somehow managed to nab the IP address of an alleged criminal using Tor, short for “The Onion Router,” as part of an ongoing anti-terrorism case. The guy in question, Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari, of Tampa, Florida, was charged in 2020 with attempting to…

Photo: Casimiro PT (Shutterstock)A hacker has breached an FBI program dedicated to critical infrastructure cybersecurity and is now selling access to its data on the dark web. Security blogger Brian Krebs reports that InfraGard, an information-sharing program maintained by the bureau, was compromised earlier this month by a cybercriminal who goes by the moniker “USDoD.” After swiping an internal database that contained contact information for “tens of thousands” of InfraGard members, the hacker proceeded to post its…

Photo: Joe Raedle (Getty Images)As the saga of the “Twitter Files” continues, the platform’s former CEO Jack Dorsey seems to be wondering why we can’t just hurry this up already and dump all of the company’s related dirt in one fell swoop. On Wednesday, following revelations about new potentially unsavory activity related to the Hunter-Biden-laptop-scandal, Dorsey asked his pal and successor, Elon Musk, to basically do a Wikileaks-style flushof Twitter’s internal documents. “If the goal is transparency to build trust,…

Photo: Alex Wong (Getty Images)The FBI came very close to using commercial spyware to aid in its domestic criminal investigations, the New York Times has reported. The spyware was developed by the NSO Group, the notorious surveillance vendor from Israel whose products have been tied to spying scandals all over the world.In January, the Times broke the news that the FBI had been considering procuring a surveillance system called “Phantom” from NSO that could reportedly hack any phone in the United States. The toolwas a…

Photo: Kevin Dietsch (Getty Images)Top U.S. law enforcement authorities revealed three newly unsealed cases Monday involving Chinese intelligence agents they say engaged in “malign influence efforts” targeting the United States. One allegedly involving a failed attempt to bribe a U.S official to give up confidential information related to Huawei, a global telecommunications company based in China.A criminal complaint unsealed on Monday accuse two Chinese intelligence officers of attempting to bribe someone they believed…

Boston police had rushed to Northeastern University Sept. 13 after a supposed bomb threat that targeted the school’s VR office. Now the FBI has said it was all a big hoax.Photo: Rodrique Ngowi (AP)The Northeastern University employee who originally said he discovered a bomb and rambling letter threatening violence to both the school and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg was arrested early Tuesday, with the FBI alleging the man faked it all. He previously denied staging the attack. In a press conference held midday Tuesday, FBI…

Photo: Drew Angerer (Getty Images)MyPillow CEO and proverbial yeller at clouds Mike Lindell is under investigation by the Department of Justice for potential identity theft and intent to damage a protected computer potentially connected to a 2020 Colorado voting equipment security breach.Lindell’s legal team published a copy of the search and seizure warrant issued against him as part of Lindell’s broader lawsuit against the FBI and Justice Department to try and return his cell phone. FBI agents seized Lindell’s phone…