Decentralized online cybercrime network whose factions range from violence and sexual coercion to extortion and corporate ransomware.
Prasan Nepal, the 21-year-old who led the 764 child sextortion network, pleaded guilty Thursday and faces 15 to 30 years in prison. The Justice Department calls 764 a violent extremist network, but the count he admitted is conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child.
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ShinyHunters claims data on almost every FBI agent, and samples reviewed by researchers show contact information, family details and duty assignments. The FBI has not confirmed what was taken or who took it, and says it is investigating.
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Google says UNC6671 split its extortion into Redact, Pink, Helix and Falcon on shared infrastructure while still working finance, legal and med tech. It averages 1.5 new victims a day.
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Kyle Spitze drew the maximum on every count, served consecutively, in a case that reached the FBI through a Discord referral. Escalation paths now feed maximum-penalty prosecutions.
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The firm says intruders reached its cloud platforms in July and took names, birth dates and Social Security numbers. Google attributes the campaign to BlackFile, a Com affiliate with four extortion brands.
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Ahmed Hossam Eldin Elbadawy, 24, admitted his part in the group's extortion work a year ago. The plea reached the public record through filings seeking more than $17 million in cryptocurrency and luxury assets.
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Elbadawy is the third of the five people charged in 2024 to be convicted. Prosecutors want at least $17.6 million in cryptocurrency and cash out of a spree the indictment ties to 29 compromised victims.
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The 4,100 coins left a Washington wallet after two callers talked their way into the holder's Google Drive, and the arrests followed an exchange signup made from a home IP plus a month of spending loud enough to advertise itself.
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Eighteen defendants are charged over the August 2024 heist, and the alleged ringleader reaches a plea agreement hearing on Tuesday. Prosecutors describe laundering built to hide the money, but one account signup exposed it.
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Malone Lam's plea hearing closes a case that started with a phone call and unravelled over a nightclub tab, at a moment when FBI crypto fraud complaints have risen nearly 50% and the DOJ's crypto unit is gone.
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The FBI calls this the first child charged and adjudicated in federal court for crimes tied to 764. It lands while the bureau says it is investigating more than 500 subjects across the same network.
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A UK sentencing is the week's single security item measured in results rather than warnings, and the arithmetic is unflattering: 730 days of custody against 117 identified victims.
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