Hackers unite

CBS,George Webb ^ | December 15,2024 | rodguy911

[rodguy911]

The story is about how older hackers from Russia in their 40's who have been hacking for years and know all the tricks unite with younger hackers, ENglish speaking, who are doing the hacking into corps. and elsewhere.

[rodguy911]

https://georgewebb.substack.com/ Webb suggests that louigi mangioni the killer was also the inside man in the black kat hacks.

[rodguy911]

CBS of all sources has done an excellent job in a less than 15 minute video of explaining how hacking into computers for money done by "Hackers" on a world-wide scale has recently evolved. It's now almost corporate with a help desk, specified actions the hackers do,a hierarchy and sophisticated youngsters from 13-25 according to Ms. Nixon of the FBI.

Here's Allison Nixon:

Allison Nixon, chief research officer with the cybersecurity firm Unit 221B.

Here's a clip from the CBS piece:

In the shadowy corners of the dark web, young hackers from the U.S., U.K., and Canada met and teamed up with Russian ransomware hackers, becoming powerful partners in crime. (The US,UK and Canadian hackers are young compared to the Russian hackers who are more experienced and in their 40's.Historically the Russian hackers didn't want any part of the English speaking US/Canadian hackers as they were seen as "not professional".Recent hacks where those hacked paid in the millions to have their computers unlocked changed the minds of the older Russian hackers.

They are now one fierce group to be reckoned with.They are so formidable the FBI has hired their own hackers, the only ones who can compete with the black kats.)

Back to CBS clip:

In the last year, ransomware hackers have targeted hospitals, pharmaceuticals, tech companies, and even Las Vegas' biggest hotels and casinos. Bryan Vorndran, the FBI's top cyber official, called ransomware an "enormous problem," and says no sector, company, or type of organization is off limits to hackers. There are estimates that global losses from ransom payments exceed $1 billion a year.

"Any way you look at the numbers, it's a problem for the global economy, and for the U.S. economy, and for the security of the United States," Vorndran said. Scattered Spider hackers

(gotta love these names almost toooo good!)

A loose-knit group of predominantly native-English speaking hackers, called Scattered Spider by the FBI, are behind some of the recent ransomware attacks, Vorndran said. The group is also known as Star Fraud, UNC3944, and Octo Tempest. Scattered Spider hackers are considered experts in social engineering.

"Part of their success is because they are fluent in Western culture. They know how our society works," said Allison Nixon, chief research officer with the cybersecurity firm Unit 221B. "They know what to say to get someone to do something."

More from the CBS link:

Scattered Spider is just one of many illicit hacking groups, all part of a sprawling collection of online criminals calling themselves "the Community," or "the Com" for short, Nixon said. She describes it as a new, but surprisingly disruptive online subculture. Members of the Com have hacked into companies like Microsoft, Nvidia and Electronic Arts, among others.

The number of people involved has exploded since 2018 from only a few hundred to thousands, Nixon said.

(Imagine thousands of hackers uniting in one group and sabotaging companies from hotels with gambling to electric companies to hospitals you aname it they can likely hack it going through social medias site such as linked-in)

"They connect over the internet. Social spaces where people hang out. Gaming servers," Nixon said. "It's almost analogous to, like, maybe the back alley where the bad kids hang out but on the internet." Those involved are largely males under the age of 25, though Nixon said teens as young as 13 have also been involved in pulling off major crimes.

Infiltrating ransomware gangs on the dark web Members communicate on messaging apps like Telegram – their chatter a toxic stew of racism and sexism. They often boast about the money they've scammed and how menacing they are.

"There are these toxic online spaces where young people can socialize and mingle with criminals and gang members," Nixon said. "And the end result of all of this is this online subculture has formed that glorifies crime, that measures one's personal worth by how much harm they can cause the world."

Hackers team up

Scattered Spider is one of the most sophisticated offshoots of the Com. Their criminal exploits have caught the attention of cybersecurity companies and earned the respect of other criminal hackers, including one of the most notorious Russian ransomware gangs, BlackCat, also known as ALPHV, who saw the young, native-English-speaking Westerners as a potential "force multiplier" for their ransomware attacks.

"Historically speaking, Russian cyber criminals did not like working with Western cyber criminals," Nixon said. "There was not only a language barrier, but also they kinda looked down on them and viewed them as unprofessional."

Scattered Spider uses its English and social engineering skills to break into companies and other entities. BlackCat provides its experience, platform and its malware, which has been used in some of the most consequential ransomware attacks in recent history.

Cybersecurity researchers believe that BlackCat is made up of former members of the Russian cybercriminal hacking group DarkSide/BlackMatter, which was responsible for the 2021 attack on Colonial Pipeline that caused gas shortages up and down the East Coast. And according to an FBI advisory, "Many of the developers and money launderers for BlackCat/ALPHV are linked to DarkSide/BlackMatter, indicating they have extensive networks and experience with ransomware operations."

[rodguy911]

Here is some stuff from researcher extraordinaire George Webb who has gone full bore into the black Kat hacking.

https://georgewebb.substack.com/p/clearer-picture-emerging-of-luigi

Clearer Picture Emerging Of Luigi Mangione As Inside Man In Black Cat Hacks

CEO Killing Silenced AI System Sniffing Out Fake Opioid Orders

George Webb

Dec 13, 2024

From the link:

A metadata picture is emerging of Luigi Mangione as an “inside man” to several “Black Cat” hacks extorting ransoms, fines, and lawsuits from large healthcare claims processors like United Health Group.

Webb is trying to establish a link from Mangione as a black cat hacker all the way to Nancy Piglosi.

more from webbs site: George Webb at Luigi Mangione nearest address that his mother gave for his Missing Persons Report - Hong Kong Trade Office.

Luigi is showing up everywhere “Black Cat” hackers are extorting millions in ransom and stealing millions of health records.

https://www.state.gov/rewards-for-justice-reward-offer-for-information-on-alphv-blackcat-linked-cyber-actors-targeting-u-s-critical-infrastructure/

The reward for tracing Luigi Magione’s Black Cat personas, like Mark Rosario, is much better than the meager $50K that the FBI has already offered for the promise to turn in the United Healthcare killer in New York City, Altoona, Pennsylvania. The Black Cat reward is ten million dollars, and the terms for collecting it are much more lenient.

Much more at the link.

[daniel1212]

Considering the $ damage as well as the potential threat to human lives that these hacker are, then allocating more resources is warranted, and harsher penalties.

[rodguy911]

That's for sure, they are capable of taking out huge enterprises like major league hotels at Vegas. They tried to take a big one out there with 7 or 8 hotels involved and wanted 30 million in ransom. The hotel chain refused to pay it cost them 100 million in various ways and they had to redo all their computer programming at another huge cost.
There are rumors that the recent killing of the united health exec. was done by one of the hacker groups from the black cat org. NO telling how far these hackers will go.

[LS]

We hack them, they hack us!

[rodguy911]

Yeah but over the past few years they have become super organized with the Russians who are older many in their 40's now organized together with those in the US Canada and the UK mostly English speaking. The English speaking group range in age primarily from 13 to 25 accd. to FBI spokesperson Allison Nixon.

These groups are so good the FBI had to hire their own hackers to try and find out who they are where they are and how to arrest them,few get arrested.

Some of the recently arrested big timers were released by the Obiden regime!

It's,hard to imagine the work Trump will have in reversing the past four years.

[LS]

Trump has a lot of work to do. Funny thing is, it’s an absolute cascade. Once you turn things around a little, they can turn massively. Ask Warren Harding & Cal Coolidge. They lowered taxes, sold off some gubment RRs and shipyards, and boom. Roaring 20s.

[rodguy911]

Good point! No telling how good Trump will make the next four years. He has a good shot at changing it all almost immediatley! Hope he starts with the wall.

[piasa]

Older men using younger boys, like cyber pedophiles, only they are attracted to geeks and nerds.

Russians should be very good at that.

[rodguy911]

Could be but my guess is this is all about the Benjamins. Show me the money!

That's what hacking has become for the real criminal pros. When you are talking hundreds of thousand and even millions of bucks for a hacking jobs you chum up a lot of hackers you ordinarily wouldn't.

And the penalties are evidently not that bad so far.

[NautiNurse]

Worrisome aspects include the “highest bidder” scenario, wherein those working to combat the hackers are subjected to offers of much more money by the black hats.

[rodguy911]

Excellent catch and you know it has to be happening. When you make 40-50k per year and are offered 500k to open this link or close that link it will be hard to pass up for some.

Especially when its tough to prove some of these cases.

Great catch. Great to hear from you NN!

[NautiNurse]

They would also be offered money to share white hat defense efforts, keeping them steps ahead in the game.

[rodguy911]

Money is going to play a part maybe a big part in the quest to stop these black inhabitants of the dark side of the web.

[goodnesswins]

Interesting...In @ 1990 I was doing HR recruiting, etc at a startup in Oregon. There was no real email except thru the cryptic pc language which I cannot recall. One day I got one of those emails from an external source. It was a guy in Russia inquirung about employment!!!

[bitt]

p

[EnderWiggin1970]

called ransomware an "enormous problem," and says no sector, company, or type of organization is off limits to hackers. There are estimates that global losses from ransom payments exceed $1 billion a year.

I would hate to get hit with a ransomware attack but... $1B is peanuts on a global scale. I truly thought this was a 10-100X larger problem.

The criminals should pray they are all caught before vigilantes figure out how to track them down. Any of them get doxxed and they will not be long for this world.

[rodguy911]

Evidently the ruskies are big time on the internet and not to be ignored. Between them and the us,canadian and UK hackers we have a full plate of work to do.

[rodguy911]

thanks very much!!