Business have lost over $3 billion because of compromised e-mail accounts, the FBI reports, citing “a sophisticated scam targeting businesses working with foreign suppliers and/or businesses that regularly perform wire transfer payments.” 22, 143 business have been affected — 14, 302 within the U.S. — with a total dollar loss of $3, 086, 250, 090, representing an increase of 1, 300% since January of 2015. Using social engineering or “computer intrusion techniques, ” the attackers target employees responsible for wire transfers (or issuing checks) using five scenarios, which include bogus invoices or executive requests for a wire transfer of funds, with some attackers even impersonating a corporate law firm. “Victims report that IP addresses frequently trace back to free domain registrars, ” warns the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, which also urges businesses to avoid free web-based e-mail accounts. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Businesses Lose $3.1 Billion to Email Scams, FBI Warns
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: FBI agents are currently trying to subpoena one of Tor’s core software developers to testify in a criminal hacking investigation, CNNMoney has learned. But the developer, who goes by the name Isis Agora Lovecruft, fears that federal agents will coerce her to undermine the Tor system — and expose Tor users around the world to potential spying. That’s why, when FBI agents approached her and her family over Thanksgiving break last year, she immediately packed her suitcase and left the United States for Germany. “I was worried they’d ask me to do something that hurts innocent people — and prevent me from telling people it’s happening, ” she said in an exclusive interview with CNNMoney. Earlier in the month, Tech Dirt reported the Department of Homeland Security wants to subpoena the site over the identity of a hyperbolic commenter. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Patrick O’Neill writes: Matt Edman is a cybersecurity expert who worked as a part-time employee at Tor Project, the nonprofit that builds Tor software and maintains the network, almost a decade ago. Since then, he’s developed potent malware used by law enforcement to unmask Tor users. It’s been wielded in multiple investigations by federal law-enforcement and U.S. intelligence agencies in several high-profile cases. The Tor Project has confirmed this report in a statement after being contacted by the Daily Dot, “It has come to out attention that Matt Edman, who worked with the Tor Project until 2009, subsequently was employed by a defense contractor working for the FBI to develop anti-Tor malware.” Maybe Tor users will now be less likely to anonymously check Facebook each month… Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
An anonymous reader writes: A group of former Skype technologists, backed by the co-founder of the messaging platform, has introduced a new version of its own messaging service that promises end-to-end encryption for all conversations, including by video. Wire, a 50-person start-up mostly made up of engineers, is stepping into a global political debate over encryption that pits privacy against security advocates, epitomized by the standoff between the U.S. government and Apple. Wire, which is headquartered in Switzerland and Germany, two of the most privacy-friendly countries in the world, relays communications through its network of cloud computers where user communications are stored, in encrypted form, on their own devices. It delivers privacy protections that are always on, even when callers use multiple devices, such as a phone or desktop PC simultaneously. For voice and video calls, Wire uses the same DTLS and SRTP encryption standards found in the peer-to-peer WebRTC protocol. Rivals such as Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp or Telegram offer encryption on only parts of a message’s journey or for a specific set of services, the company said. “Everything is end-to-end encrypted: That means voice and video calls, texts, pictures, graphics — all the content you can send, ” Wire Executive Chairman Janus Friis told Reuters. Read more of this story at Slashdot.