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Category: law enforcement

Washington state proposes new 3D-printed gun controls with ‘blocking features’ and blueprint detection algorithm — proposal would carry sentences of five years in prison, $15,000 fine for violation

All three are explained in more detail in the bill, but arrive at broadly the same destination. This law, if approved, would prevent 3D printer brands from selling their wares in Washington State without stringent controls to prevent the printing of 3D firearms, or indeed parts that could be used to modify existing weapons.

According to the bill, violating this proposed law would be a class C felony, which means anyone found in violation of these terms could face up to five years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

Washington is not the first state to propose addressing 3D-printed firearms by way of legislation, and is unlikely to be the last. Earlier this month New York took steps to ban 3D-printed guns, proposing the mandating of 3D printer safeguards and cracking down on the sharing and possession of 3D files containing guns or gun components.

Black Basta Ransomware Leader Added to EU Most Wanted and INTERPOL Red Notice

Ukrainian and German law enforcement authorities have identified two Ukrainians suspected of working for the Russia-linked ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) group Black Basta.

In addition, the group’s alleged leader, a 35-year-old Russian national named Oleg Evgenievich Nefedov (Нефедов Олег Евгеньевич), has been added to the European Union’s Most Wanted and INTERPOL’s Red Notice lists, authorities noted.

“According to the investigation, the suspects specialized in technical hacking of protected systems and were involved in preparing cyberattacks using ransomware,” the Cyber Police of Ukraine said in a statement.

Black Basta boss makes it onto Interpol’s ‘Red Notice’ list

The identity of the Black Basta ransomware gang leader has been confirmed by law enforcement in Ukraine and Germany, and the individual has been added to the wanted list of Europol and Interpol.

Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) identified Oleg Evgenievich Nefedov, a 35-year-old Russian national, as the leader of the Black Basta ransomware gang.

The Ukrainian police in collaboration with German authorities also identified two additional individuals allegedly working for the ransomware operation and conducted raids at two locations in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions.

THC Blood Limits Don’t Reliably Show Driving Impairment

After 48 hours of abstinence, 43% of 190 cannabis users still exceeded zero-tolerance THC limits, with 24% above 2 ng/mL and 5.3% above 5 ng/mL.

How does cannabis THC impact driver impairment and DUI laws? This is what a recent study published in Clinical Chemistry hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated current cannabis DUI laws and whether they are effective in identifying impaired drivers from cannabis use. This study has the potential to help researchers, law enforcement, medical professionals, and the public better understand cannabis DUI laws and whether they should be adjusted to accurately depict and identify impaired drivers.

For the study, the researchers analyzed data obtained from 190 cannabis users to evaluate baseline THC concentrations after 48 hours and whether they exceeded the current legal limits of THC concentrations. These limits include 2 or 5 ng/mL of THC in several states while some states have zero-tolerance policies. The participants were instructed to abstain from cannabis use for 48 hours to be evaluated for their THC levels. In the end, the researchers found that 43 percent of the participants exceeded zero-tolerance levels after 48 hours of abstaining from cannabis while 24 percent had baseline THC levels more that 2 ng/mL and 5.3 percent has greater than 5 ng/mL.

The study concluded, “More work needs to be done to address how to best identify drivers who are under the influence of cannabis and are unsafe to drive. A brief editorial highlights many of the challenges faced when developing a reliable test of cannabis impairment. At present, the best protocol is a combination of observations in the field and toxicology testing. We recognize that the current state of the art is lacking and have made recommendations on pathways for improvement. We feel that an essential component of improving highway safety is collaborations between law enforcement and the scientific community to develop standards that are unbiased and potentially lifesaving.”

US cybersecurity experts plead guilty to BlackCat ransomware attacks

Two former employees of cybersecurity incident response companies Sygnia and DigitalMint have pleaded guilty to targeting U.S. companies in BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware attacks in 2023.

33-year-old Ryan Clifford Goldberg of Watkinsville, Georgia (in federal custody since September 2023), and 28-year-old Kevin Tyler Martin of Roanoke, Texas, who were charged in November, have now pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct commerce by extortion and are set to be sentenced on March 12, 2026, facing up to 20 years in prison each.

Together with a third accomplice, the two BlackCat ransomware affiliates breached the networks of multiple victims across the United States between May 2023 and November 2023, paying a 20% share of ransoms in exchange for access to BlackCat’s ransomware and extortion platform.

Interpol-led action decrypts 6 ransomware strains, arrests hundreds

An Interpol-coordinated initiative called Operation Sentinel led to the arrest of 574 individuals and the recovery of $3 million linked to business email compromise, extortion, and ransomware incidents.

Between October 27 and November 27, the investigation, which involved law enforcement in 19 countries, took down more than 6,000 malicious links and decrypted six distinct ransomware variants.

Interpol says that the cybercrime cases investigated are connected to more than $21 million in financial losses.

Contractors with hacking records accused of wiping 96 govt databases

U.S. prosecutors have charged two Virginia brothers arrested on Wednesday with allegedly conspiring to steal sensitive information and destroy government databases after being fired from their jobs as federal contractors.

Twin brothers Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter, both 34, were also sentenced to several years in prison in June 2015, after pleading guilty to accessing U.S. State Department systems without authorization and stealing personal information belonging to dozens of co-workers and a federal law enforcement agent who was investigating their crimes.

Muneeb Akhter also hacked a private data aggregation company in November 2013 and the website of a cosmetics company in March 2014.

Man behind in-flight Evil Twin WiFi attacks gets 7 years in prison

A 44-year-old man was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison for operating an “evil twin” WiFi network to steal the data of unsuspecting travelers during flights and at various airports across Australia.

The man, an Australian national, was charged in July 2024 after Australian authorities had confiscated his equipment in April and confirmed that he was engaging in malicious activities during domestic flights and at airports in Perth, Melbourne, and Adelaide.

Specifically, the man was setting up an access point with a ‘WiFi Pineapple’ portable wireless access device and used the same name (SSID) for the rogue wireless network as the legitimate ones in airports.

Europol dismantles SIM box operation renting numbers for cybercrime

European law enforcement in an operation codenamed ‘SIMCARTEL’ has dismantled an illegal SIM-box service that enabled more than 3,200 fraud cases and caused at least 4.5 million euros in losses.

The cybercriminal online services had about 1,200 SIM-box devices with 40,000 SIM cards to provide phone numbers that were used in telecommunication crimes ranging from phishing and investment fraud to impersonation and extortion.

In an announcement today, Europol says that the cybercrime service operated through two websites, gogetsms.com and apisim.com, which have been seized and now display a law enforcement banner.

Astaroth Banking Trojan Abuses GitHub to Remain Operational After Takedowns

Cybersecurity researchers are calling attention to a new campaign that delivers the Astaroth banking trojan that employs GitHub as a backbone for its operations to stay resilient in the face of infrastructure takedowns.

“Instead of relying solely on traditional command-and-control (C2) servers that can be taken down, these attackers are leveraging GitHub repositories to host malware configurations,” McAfee Labs researchers Harshil Patel and Prabudh Chakravorty said in a report.

“When law enforcement or security researchers shut down their C2 infrastructure, Astaroth simply pulls fresh configurations from GitHub and keeps running.”

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