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Showing posts from July, 2026

UK Cybercrime Journal: University of Nottingham Breached by ShinyHunters

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What Happened On 9 June 2026, the University of Nottingham was listed as a victim on the ShinyHunters Tor data leak site. The attackers leaked over 40GB of billing and payment records, student finance data, and campus portal exports from the University of Nottingham and its Malaysia and China campuses. The data stolen includes contact information, transaction amounts, IP addresses, full names, home addresses, postcodes, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and other internal campus data. Further analysis of the leaked data by Have I Been Pwned revealed it also contained over 455,000 unique email addresses along with extensive personal information including ethnicities, disabilities, and passport numbers. On 10 June 2026, security researcher @nahamike01 uncovered an exposed server belonging to ShinyHunters and found them targeting Oracle PeopleSoft servers using MeshCentral agents. Plus, analysis the bash_history logs on the server uncovered SSH connections to the IP addre...

UK Cybercrime Journal: SMS Blaster Gang Convicted

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  What Happened Officers from the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), jointly run by the London Met Police and City of London Police, secured the conviction of a man who used an SMS Blaster device to send fraudulent text messages as part of an organised criminal operation in London. The conviction relates to an investigation that previously led to the sentencing of Ruichen Xiong in July 2025, who was apprehended while driving a vehicle in North London as the device was in operation. During that incident, officers in the vicinity received fraudulent text messages purporting to be from HMRC. Ruichen Xiong was a student from China who drove around London using the SMS Blaster between 22 and 27 March 2025, sending messages to tens of thousands of potential victims. Following Xiong’s arrest and subsequent conviction, enquiries identified another individual called Di Li who was a key organiser. Li facilitated Xiong’s involvement by arranging access to the device, assisting wit...

UK Cybercrime Journal: Argos Account Takeover Fraud

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What Happened On 3 June 2026, the City of London Police issued a warning stating Report Fraud has seen a significant increase in cases mentioning the retailer, reflecting how criminals are targeting well-known brands. Report Fraud, which is run by the City of London Police, warned that cybercriminals are using leaked credentials from historical data breaches to hijack Argos user accounts. Once on the account, the fraudsters order and then collect the goods in-person at a physical store. In some instances, the goods are paid for using payment details not connected to the victim of the compromised account. Notably, the goods from fraudulent orders are often claimed via Click & Collect option that Argos allows, enabling the threat actors to retrieve goods in store. In May, Report Fraud received 652 reports which mention Argos, a 323% increase compared to April, when 154 reports mentioning the retailer were made. Since the start of 2026, there have been 1,175 reports mentioning th...