Hacker arrested for breaching 5,000 hosting accounts to mine crypto

The Ukrainian police arrested a 35-year-old hacker who breached 5,000 accounts at an international hosting company and used them to mine cryptocurrency, resulting in $4.5 million in damages. "The suspect illegally gained access to over 5,000 accounts belonging to clients of an international hosting company that provides server rental services for the operation of various websites and online platforms," reads the police's announcement. "After gaining access to these accounts, the perpetrator began unauthorized deployment of virtual machines (software that emulates a computer's operation) using the company's server resources." As the threat actor utilized the accounts to mine cryptocurrency on the hosting provider's servers, the resulting damages were estimated to be $4,500,000. The police's investigation established that the hacker had been active since 2018, using open-source intelligence to find and breach vulnerable infrastructure of international organizations. He periodically ... Read full article.