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The service was advertised on the Russian cybercrime forum Exploit, where whoever was promoting it posted the driver’s license of Krebs as a free sample, which caught the journalist’s attention. He was also able to see a preview of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s information on the database — a concerning breach of security for someone with such a sensitive position in the government. After further investigation, they concluded that the service seemed to have possessed legitimate data, especially after searching for the data of several of his friends and family members with their consent. One thing that all the people he found in the database had in common was that they all used Hertz to rent a vehicle.
Based on the evidence gathered by Krebs, it seems that the leak is centered around the company. He has already contacted the company about the issue, and they said they were investigating the matter. “At this point I’m not able to share any additional information, but the updates you have provided have been welcome, and helpful to our team’s investigation,” Jillian Kossman, a marketing and operations leader at idscan.net, told the journalist. The FBI has also started looking into the leak, with its New Orleans field office opening an official investigation into the breach.
Russian hacker faces up to 20 years in prison, following extradition and indictment over US phishing campaign that allegedly infected 80,000 PCs
FBI dismantles Chinese phishing service that coached buyers to generate scam sites using AI
Windows 11 identifier used to track Scattered Spider perp after Microsoft shared info with FBI
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Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/fbi-investigating-153-million-us-and-canadian-drivers-licenses-leaked-on-russian-cybercrime-forum-including-that-of-us-secdef-pete-hegseth-data-is-suspected-to-have-come-from-an-id-authentication-service-provider#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.