Law Enforcement Bags a Couple of Turkeys. 

Gobbler No. 2: Oluwaseun Medayedupin 

If things weren't bad enough with disgruntled new hirees quitting before their shift even begins, a miscreant in Nigeria was attempting to finance his idea of starting a new web platform by soliticing via email disgruntled employees and bribing them with a percentage of the ill gotten gains if they would only install the attached ransomware to encrypt and lock the company's computers.  And then let the ransom Dollars, or Pounds, or Euros come rolling in.  "All the emails mention DemonWare (aka the Black Kingdom and DEMON), which has been active for many years." 

The jig was up on Mr. Medayedupin when Crane Hassold, director of threat intelligence at Abnormal Security, decided to go undercover and respond to an email he received at his workplace. Medayedupin had promised Hassold "40% of a 1 million score if he installed DemonWare ransomware on his employer’s computer."  After being outed, this past week Nigerian authorites arrested Mr. Medayedupin.

It is estimated that by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), consumers and businesses reported more than $4.2 billion in losses tied to cybercrime in 2020, and Business Email Compromise (BEC fraud) (pdf will open) and romance scams alone accounted for nearly 60 percent of those losses.  So shutting down even one amatuerish crook could well save some small business somewhere tens of thousands of dollars.

Gerald Reiff