Cybercrime Exposed

Andrei Tarasov has an intricate tattoo on his back of a circuitboard. The tattoo is appropriate because technology has played a big part in what he does for a living: cybercrime. Tarasov creates tools others use to steal money and data online. While doing e-crime, Tarasov skimmed across borders, out of his native Russia, a country he extensively criticized, including the country’s war against Ukra...

DukeEugene is a Russian hacker, heavily tattooed with a large swastika on his chest. He specializes in developing malicious software for Android phones. The malware is aimed at stealing credentials and data in order to drain its victims’ bank accounts. Despite developing malware, DukeEugene isn’t a very great coder, but he’s well-known and has many connections in the cybercriminal underground – de...

Information stealing malware is one of the most common ways that organizations end up infiltrated by malicious hackers. For several years, one type of infostealer called Raccoon Stealer ruled them all. If a computer was infected with Raccoon Stealer, all data – ranging from login credentials, payment card data, cryptocurrency accounts, session tokens – are vacuumed up from the machine and sent off...

In 2006, a new type of malware appeared on the scene. Its name was Zeus. It was enormously profitable for its cybercriminal developers, who used it to steal tens of millions of dollars from businesses and organizations of all sizes. Those behind the scheme had honed a new model: cybercrime-as-as-service, where individuals focus on their specialities – creating malware, employing money mules, actin...

The online game Axie Infinity is colorful and eye catching. It resembles Pokemon and is filled with cute digital creatures. To play the game, players use virtual currency to buy and sell these creatures and can earn it by battling each other. In 2021, the company behind Axie Infinity was worth $3 billion and backed by Silicon Valley dollars. But this virtual world and the enormous amount of virtua...

Over many years, a cybercriminal gang likely based in Russia built a huge network of interconnected, hacked computers. They did this one inbox at a time. They sent spam messages with fake documents and malicious links, tricking people into opening malicious software. The network of hacked computers was called Qakbot, or QBot. The botnet was used by cybercriminal gangs to infiltrate computers, stea...

In the early 2010s, a group of malicious hackers had a goal: to build a Durango, which was the code name for Microsoft’s next-generation gaming console eventually known as the XBox One. They did this by stealing reams of data: authentication keys, personal data, login credentials and proprietary gaming documents. Arman Sadri was on the fringes of the group. He was a gaming hacker who taught himsel...

Bluma Janowitz is a social engineer and red team agent. She specializes in what are called red-teaming exercises, which are designed to test an organization’s defenses against malicious hackers. She might try to trick employees into giving up sensitive information over the phone or drop USB drives in places where curious people might put them in their computers. She talks her way into buildings an...

In one long weekend in May 2023, a cybercriminal gang called Clop conducted one of the largest data breaches on record. The supply-chain attack affected thousands of organizations and millions of people. The group dumped terabytes of health care data, personal and corporate records on the internet in an effort to extort the victims. CLOP’s attack epitomizes the challenges in fighting professional...

Bex Nitert is an incident response and forensics professional in Australia. She describes herself as a digital firefighter who helps organizations after they’ve been hacked. She often investigates phishing, the term for stealing login credentials with the aim of taking over accounts and systems. There’s a threat actor who created a managed phishing service to help other cybercriminals steal userna...

Introducing Cybercrime Exposed, a podcast from Intel 471 that explores how malicious hackers undermine the systems we trust.