Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
Senior Reporter, Cybersecurity
The Latest from Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
Hackers are infecting Call of Duty players with a self-spreading malware
Hackers are infecting players of an old Call of Duty game with a worm that spreads automatically in online lobbies, according to two analyses of the malware. On June 26, a user on a Steam forum alerte
Google says Apple employee found a zero-day but did not report it
Google fixed a zero-day in Chrome that was found by an Apple employee, according to comments in the official bug report. While the bug itself is not newsworthy, the circumstances of how this bug was f
US government adds two more spyware makers to denylist
The U.S. government put Intellexa and Cytrox, two European spyware makers, on an economic denylist on Tuesday. The addition of the two companies, based in Greece and Hungary, as well as two related en
Cybersecurity professional accused of stealing $9M in crypto
The U.S. government accused a cybersecurity professional of hacking a cryptocurrency exchange and stealing around $9 million in cryptocurrency, in what looks like a case of an ethical hacker turning r
Bangladesh government takes down exposed citizens’ data
The Bangladeshi government on Sunday took down citizens’ sensitive data that it had left exposed online. On Friday, TechCrunch reported that a website belonging to the government of Bangladesh was l
Bangladesh government website leaks citizens’ personal data
A Bangladeshi government website leaked the personal information of citizens, including full names, phone numbers, email addresses and national ID numbers. Viktor Markopoulos, a researcher who works f
Hacktivists steal government files from Texas city Fort Worth
A hacktivist group broke into an online system belonging to the Texas city of Fort Worth, stole several gigabytes of data and posted it online. On Saturday, Fort Worth officials admitted that it suffe
Feds seize notorious and shuttered hacking site BreachForums
Three months after arresting its administrator, U.S. federal authorities have seized the domain of notorious hacking site BreachForums. For a time, the forum was the go-to community for English-speaki
Scammers publish ads for hacking services on government websites
Scammers have published various advertisements for hacking services on the official websites of multiple U.S. state, county and local governments, a federal agency, as well as numerous universities. T
Kaspersky says attackers hacked staff iPhones with unknown malware
The Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky said that hackers working for a government targeted several dozen employees’ iPhones with unknown malware. On Thursday, Kaspersky announced the alleged cy
Researchers say they found spyware used in war for the first time
Security researchers and digital rights organizations believe the government of Azerbaijan used spyware produced by NSO Group to target a government worker, journalists, activists and the human rights
Consulting firm Krebs Stamos Group lays off six employees
A consulting firm founded and run by two well-known cybersecurity veterans laid off six people last week, TechCrunch has learned. Krebs Stamos Group was founded in 2021 by former Facebook chief securi
Cybercriminals who targeted Ukraine are actually Russian government hackers, researchers say
For years, Russian government hackers have used several made-up personas to hide their tracks and try to trick security researchers and government agencies into pointing the blame in the wrong directi
Western Digital tells customers that hackers stole their data
On Friday, a month after the company revealed it had been the victim of a data breach, Western Digital published an update on the incident and notified customers that their data was stolen. In a press
Bishop Fox lays off employees days after throwing conference party
Cybersecurity firm Bishop Fox laid off around 50 employees — or 13% of its workforce — on Tuesday, the company told TechCrunch. The layoffs come just a few days after the company threw a party at
Hackers steal emails, private messages from hookup websites
Hackers have stolen email addresses, direct messages, and other personal data from users of two dating websites, according to a data breach expert. Earlier this week, someone alerted Troy Hunt, the fo
Hackers are breaking into AT&T email accounts to steal cryptocurrency
Unknown hackers are breaking into the accounts of people who have AT&T email addresses, and using that access to then hack into the victim’s cryptocurrency exchange’s accounts and steal th
The IRS is sending four investigators across the world to fight cybercrime
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plans to send four agents who specialize in investigating cybercrime to Australia, Singapore, Colombia, and Germany starting this summer. These four new positions re
Jailbreak tricks Discord’s new chatbot into sharing napalm and meth instructions
In March, Discord announced that it had integrated OpenAI’s technology into its bot named Clyde, turning it into an AI-powered chatbot. Just like with any other chatbot launched in the last few mont