Search: “ATF”

9 items

US extradited Russian national Sergei Filimonov over a bank-account takeover scheme using spoofed bank domains that defrauded two banks of $6.3 million.

US authorities extradited 36-year-old Russian national Sergei Anatolyevich Filimonov from the Republic of Georgia on charges including bank and wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. He and unnamed co-conspirators allegedly ran spoofed bank domains, bought sponsored links to lure victims, and harvested over 5,000 victim login credentials starting in November 2023, causing unauthorized transfers of about $5.58 million and $735,000 from two banks in 2024. The FBI previously identified at least 19 US victims linked to the credential-storage domain, with roughly $28 million in attempted losses including $14.6 million confirmed. Filimonov faces up to 175 years in prison, pleaded not guilty on September 4, and remains detained in the Northern District of Georgia.

CyberScoopSep 8, 20:32 UTC · 8d agoPolicy & legal

CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

CIA deputy director says cyber operations built the intelligence picture enabling US forces to capture Nicolás Maduro in Operation Absolute Resolve.

CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis said at the Billington Cybersecurity Conference that cyber operations built the intelligence picture that let US special operations forces locate and apprehend Nicolás Maduro within four minutes of landing during Operation Absolute Resolve. He cited the elevation of the Center for Cyber Intelligence to a full mission center as key to aligning resources around the cyber mission. The agency also created a Directorate of Mission Systems and cut its technology acquisition cycle from two to three years to a six-month target, completing more than 400 purchases within that period. Ellis said AI brings unprecedented speed and scale to cyber operations and analysis.

CyberScoopSep 8, 19:49 UTC · 8d agoPolicy & legal 2 sources

In most cities, nobody owns the whole network

Former Waco CIO argues cellular-connected water controllers sit outside scanned networks, and accountability plus operating-budget funding—not technology—block segmentation.

Writing as Waco, Texas's former CIO, the author describes July water-sector intrusions that CISA linked to over 100 compromised systems, typically controllers on public cellular links absent from asset lists. The FBI and EPA reported incidents at utilities in at least seven states since July 27, and a Clayton County, Georgia pump station failure triggered a boil-water advisory. He argues accountability and funding—using mechanisms like the Texas Water Development Board's new cybersecurity scoring criteria—are the binding constraints, citing Waco's 43-day segmentation of five treatment plants with operating funds.

CyberScoopSep 8, 10:00 UTC · 8d agoIndustry in the wild

European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

29 MEPs urge delaying Serbia's EU accession after researchers found Pegasus and NoviSpy spyware on student activists' phones.

Twenty-nine Members of the European Parliament sent a letter Friday demanding Serbia's EU accession be slowed until an investigation into its spyware use is completed. The letter follows a SHARE Foundation report, with Amnesty International and the Citizen Lab, documenting Pegasus and NoviSpy infections on Serbian student activists' phones; NoviSpy evidence pointed to Serbian government authorities, though Pegasus attribution was not assigned. The MEPs also urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to cancel a planned visit to Serbia and called the surveillance 'a direct state attack on democracy' ahead of upcoming elections. The Serbian government did not respond to requests for comment.

CyberScoopSep 4, 21:02 UTC · 12d agoPolicy & legal in the wild

Why judgment is emerging as cybersecurity’s defining skill

CyberScoop op-ed argues CISOs should grant AI autonomy based on reversibility and blast radius rather than model confidence, and measure analyst overrides of AI recommendations.

A CyberScoop op-ed contends that as AI takes over analysis and recommendations in security operations, human judgment about context, reversibility and blast radius becomes the defining skill. The author argues autonomy decisions should rest on how reversible and impactful an action is rather than model confidence, citing examples such as patching vendor-certified medical devices and a service account whose 3 a.m. login spikes were normal quarterly-close activity. It also urges leaders to measure analyst approvals, edits and rejections of AI recommendations, and review latency, instead of automation rates or mean time to resolution.

CyberScoopSep 4, 10:00 UTC · 12d agoIndustry1

The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

A G7 working group report urges governments and industry to accelerate post-quantum cryptography migration, framing quantum risk as a near-term economic threat.

A cybersecurity working group formed at the June 2026 G7 Summit in France called on organizations to stop postponing migration of critical systems to post-quantum cryptography, warning that harvest-now-decrypt-later attacks against currently encrypted data exist today. The report was signed by CISA, the UK NCSC, France's ANSSI, Germany's BSI, Canada's CSE, Japan's NCO, and Italy's ACN. It also cautions that some NIST-selected PQC algorithms have already been broken on classical computers, reinforcing support for crypto-agility. The push aligns with a recent US executive order moving federal PQC migration timelines from 2035 to 2030, while Google and others target 2029.

CyberScoopSep 3, 19:29 UTC · 13d agoPolicy & legal

Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

A 17-year-old from Maine became the first minor federally adjudicated for 764 extremist crimes, including child exploitation, signaling a policy shift on prosecuting juveniles.

The FBI said a Maine teenager is the first child federally charged and adjudicated for crimes tied to the nihilistic violent extremist collective 764, part of The Com network. Charges include conspiracy to sexually exploit a child, distributing CSAM, interstate threats, cyberstalking, and identity theft. The case marks a turning point in federal policy on prosecuting juveniles and continues heightened enforcement: Kyle Spitze was sentenced to 77 years and Alexis Chavez to 40 years in related cases. The FBI is investigating more than 500 subjects connected to 764 and its offshoots nationwide.

CyberScoopSep 2, 21:03 UTC · 14d agoPolicy & legal

FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

The FCC proposed a public scorecard rating telecoms' anti-robocall effectiveness and removed 14 providers from US networks for compliance failures.

The Federal Communications Commission issued a public notice proposing a scorecard that would assess how effectively retail voice providers, including wireless, wireline and VoIP, prevent illegal robocalls, drawing on Robocall Mitigation Database filings, consumer complaint and enforcement data. The agency stressed it is not a rulemaking imposing new requirements, and it is seeking comment on scope, such as whether to focus on larger providers. The same day, the FCC removed 14 providers from the Robocall Mitigation Database for non-compliance, effectively requiring other US providers to block their traffic within two days.

CyberScoopSep 2, 17:57 UTC · 14d agoPolicy & legal

Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

Senator Ron Wyden asked the NSA to update public guidance on commercial VPN security risks and answer questions about foreign surveillance threats against single-hop VPNs.

Sen. Ron Wyden sent a letter to NSA Director Gen. Joshua Rudd urging the agency to revise public guidance on commercial VPNs, following earlier letters to federal agencies in March and July. He argues single-hop VPNs offer little protection against sophisticated adversaries able to compel or compromise the single provider, citing a Congressional Research Service paper favoring multi-hop and mixnet architectures. The letter references a September NSA advisory on a China-sponsored campaign against telecom, government and military networks and asks unclassified questions about multi-hop systems such as Apple Private Relay, Tor and Nym versus mixnets.

CyberScoopSep 2, 15:00 UTC · 14d agoPolicy & legal