Mexican Cartel Hacked FBI Agent's Phone to Hunt Down Informants

Quick Overview

The Sinaloa Cartel hired a hacker to exploit an FBI agent's phone and Mexico City's camera system, gathering intelligence to intimidate or kill potential sources and cooperating witnesses in the "El Chapo" drug cartel case. This unprecedented targeting of an FBI agent was revealed through a cartel snitch. Additionally, Russian state-backed hackers employed a sophisticated phishing technique bypassing multi-factor authentication by tricking a British expert into generating and sharing an app-specific Google password. Separately, a former US Army sergeant attempted to leak top-secret military intelligence to China, but his amateurish attempts were unsuccessful, leading to his arrest and a potential 10-year prison sentence. Finally, tech support scammers are now hijacking Google search results with malicious ads that inject fake phone numbers into legitimate company help pages, tricking users into calling them and demanding gift card payments.

Key Points: The Sinaloa Cartel hired a hacker to compromise an FBI agent's phone and Mexico City's surveillance system, using the gathered intelligence to intimidate or kill informants. A cartel insider provided the FBI with information about the operation, revealing the extent of the cartel's cyber capabilities. Russian state-backed hackers successfully used a novel phishing technique to gain full access to a British expert's Google account by tricking him into generating and sharing an app-specific password. A former US Army sergeant with top-secret clearance attempted to leak classified military information to China, but his efforts were largely unsuccessful due to his lack of operational security. The sergeant's motive for attempting to leak secrets was a deep-seated disillusionment with the American government, rather than financial gain. Tech support scammers are now employing 'malvertising' by placing sponsored Google ads that inject fake phone numbers into legitimate company help pages, tricking users into calling them. The FBI recommends installing ad blockers to protect against these malicious search ads, which exploit the difficulty many users face in finding genuine customer support contacts.