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Chess.com Leak Exposes 7.3 Million Users — Evidence Points to Scraping

A free 15.5 GB leak exposed 7.3 million Chess.com user records; analysis suggests large-scale scraping via find-friends rather than a server breach.

A 15.5 GB dump containing 7,337,395 Chess.com records appeared on leak forums posted by user V0idix at no cost. Ransomnews confirmed the data is genuine by validating embedded v1 UUID timestamps against registration dates, but found daily-batch collection over nine days and ~7.4% duplicate records, pointing to scraping. The schema includes emails, ratings, subscription tiers and internal Google Ad Manager audience segments not exposed in the public API, and contains no passwords or payment data. Chess.com reported a similar 828,000-record 2023 leak from find-friends abuse and said then that it was not a breach.

Security Affairs · Aug 14, 2026Data breach in the wild

ClickFix attacks infecting PCs and Macs are going viral

ClickFix social engineering attacks are spreading widely, delivering malware to Windows and macOS users by tricking them into running malicious terminal commands that bypass Gatekeeper.

BlueVoyant reports the Lorem Ipsum malware operation pivoted to ClickFix in late May 2026, dropping code-signing infrastructure and broadening its victim pool from Microsoft Teams searchers to anyone browsing a compromised website. Jamf and independent researchers documented macOS ClickFix variants that bypass Gatekeeper protections. Cisco Talos observed attackers abusing published Google Sheets for control traffic, while Netskope counted 5,400 sites beaconing to one campaign; Sandworm has separately hosted control infrastructure in blockchain smart contracts.

Ars Technica · Security · 6d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

Srsly Risky Biz: America's Drivers Licence Breach is a National Security Disaster

Dark web service Nexus sold 153 million US and Canadian driver's licenses, linked to identity verification firm IDScan under FBI investigation.

Krebs On Security reported that a dark web service called Nexus sold access to 153 million US and Canadian driver's licenses, claiming over a year of continuous exfiltration from a major identity verification company, with roughly 400,000 new licences added in a single day. Krebs verified the data as genuine and linked the incident via circumstantial evidence to identity verification firm IDScan, whose licences of senior US officials including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth appeared in the database; the FBI is investigating and IDScan has confirmed a breach inquiry. The article argues the data has national security implications, citing how Chinese APT espionage (Anthem, Equifax, Marriott, OPM) and Bellingcat investigations exploited leaked databases. Class action suits are being prepared, and the piece calls for stricter oversight of identity verification firms.

Risky Business News · 7d agoData breach in the wild

Large group of Serbian opposition, activist figures targeted with spyware

Researchers found at least 14 Serbian opposition figures and student protesters targeted with Pegasus and NoviSpy spyware around elections; 11 more phones under investigation.

The SHARE Foundation, with Citizen Lab confirmation and Amnesty International peer review, found at least 14 Serbian opposition and civil society figures targeted with advanced spyware since December, including a member of Parliament, a local politician and student protesters. Citizen Lab confirmed zero-click Pegasus on a student protester's iPhone between December 2025 and January 2026, while Amnesty confirmed a new detection-evading NoviSpy Android variant in at least two cases. Targeting coincided with March 2026 local elections; Serbia's BIA intelligence agency denied the claims, and 11 additional alerted phones remain under forensic investigation.

The Record · 13d agoThreat actor in the wild

FBI Probes Service Selling 153M+ Drivers Licenses

Dark web service Nexus sells scans of 153M+ US and Canadian drivers licenses, apparently siphoned from a breached identity verification company; FBI opened an inquiry.

A new dark web identity theft service called Nexus, advertised on the Exploit forum, offers scans of more than 153 million drivers licenses from the US and Canada, plus over 10 million ID cards and millions of travel and medical documents. The data appears to come from an ongoing breach at a major Louisiana-based identity verification company, with records growing by roughly 400,000 in 24 hours. Records include high-ranking US officials such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and timestamps suggest data was captured during car rentals and travel. The FBI's New Orleans field office has launched an official inquiry into the source of the images.

Krebs on Security · 15d agoData breach in the wild1

Ransom Busters Claims It Hacked Ransomware Servers, Asks Victims for Up to $60,000

GuidePoint reports a ransomware affiliate posing as 'Ransom Busters' charges victims $20,000-$60,000 to delete stolen data, and details UNC6671's $8M AitM extortion wave.

GuidePoint's GRIT team reports that 'Ransom Busters', likely a ransomware affiliate active across multiple RaaS operations including DragonForce, Settra and Anubis, proactively emails victims claiming it deleted their stolen data and backups for a $20,000-$60,000 fee, citing claimed access to RaaS administrative panels for over three years. Two analyzed intrusions shared tooling: SoftPerfect Network Scanner for reconnaissance, s5cmd-based exfiltration to AWS cloud storage, an RMM tool installed via PowerShell, a backdoor account with password 'Numlock!123' and the same attacker hostname DESKTOP-BBETH6K. Separately, GRIT detailed UNC6671's (Cordial Spider) adversary-in-the-middle vishing operation running since April under five extortion brands, with more than $8 million across 15 Bitcoin wallets, an average of $600,000 per payment, and 78 phishing sub-domains across 76 organizations, 40% in financial services.

The Hacker News · 29d agoThreat actor in the wild1