The Ukrainian Cyber Police have arrested three individuals suspected of hacking into over 100 million email and Instagram accounts worldwide.
The suspects, aged between 20 and 40, are allegedly part of an organised criminal group based in different parts of the country. If convicted, they could face up to 15 years in prison.
The accounts were taken over through brute force attacks, which employ trial-and-error methods to guess login credentials. The cybercriminal group was led by an individual who assigned hacking tasks to other members.
The group then sold the stolen credentials on dark web forums.
The compromised accounts were used by other threat actors to carry out fraudulent schemes, including contacting the victim's friends and requesting urgent money transfers to their bank account.
The agency recommended setting up two-factor authentication and using strong passwords to protect accounts from hacking.
As part of the operation, officials conducted seven searches in Kyiv, Odessa, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Donetsk and Kirovohrad. They seized 70 computers, 14 phones, bank cards, and cash worth more than $3,000.
A US citizen has pleaded guilty to breaching more than a dozen entities in the US, including a medical clinic in Griffin, and leaking the personal information of more than 132,000 people. Robert Purbeck (also known as Lifelock or Studmaster) is scheduled to be sentenced on 18 June 2024.
According to US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan, Purbeck compounded his crimes by using sensitive data as a weapon in a blatant attempt to extort money from his victims.
According to the US Department of Justice, Purbeck pleaded guilty today to federal charges of computer fraud and abuse. He bought access to the clinic's computers and used them as a weapon in an attempt to extort money from his victims," Buchanan said.