Hackers hit Bulgaria, send data from Russian email: government

mood · Jul 16, 2019

Hackers hit Bulgaria, send data from Russian email: government
July 16, 2019
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...a-from-russian-email-government-idUSKCN1UB0MA

Hackers stole thousands of Bulgarians’ personal financial data and distributed it from a Russian-based email in an attack possibly related to the purchase of new F-16 fighter jets from the United States, the government said on Tuesday.
“Maybe this is the first case in Bulgaria which is successful and a lot of personal data has been stolen,” Marinov told local bTV channel.

A leading Bulgarian newspaper, 24 Chasa, said one file emailed by the hackers had more than 1.1 million identification numbers with income, social security and healthcare figures.
According to local web site Mediapool, the email came from an address with Russian mail provider Yandex.

In a statement, the NRA said it and security agencies were checking “a potential weakness” in its computer systems.
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hawki · Jul 17, 2019

"Data of 'nearly all adults' in Bulgaria stolen

Personal data belonging to millions of Bulgarians has been stolen in a cyber-attack on the country's tax agency.

According to a local cyber-security researcher, most adults in the country of seven million people are likely to have had some data compromised.
Bulgarian authorities have arrested a 20-year-old man on suspicion of involvement in the attack.

Among the stolen data were names, addresses and even some details of personal income, local media reported...

'It is safe to say that the personal data of practically the whole Bulgarian adult population has been compromised,' said cyber-security researcher Vesselin Bontchev, assistant professor at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

The hack occurred in June but an email purportedly from one of the culprits was sent to Bulgarian media on Monday..."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49015511

mood · Jul 17, 2019

Person arrested after tax agency data leak, Bulgarian prosecutors say
July 17, 2019
https://sofiaglobe.com/2019/07/17/p...x-agency-data-leak-bulgarian-prosecutors-say/

Bulgaria’s prosecutor’s office said on July 17 that it has pressed charges against a 20-year-old Bulgarian national, who has been detained for a period of 72 hours in relation to the cyber attack on the country’s National Revenue Agency.

The prosecutors said that man was charged under a Penal Code article that deals with cyber crimes against computer systems that are part of critical infrastructure, which carries a possible sentence of five to eight years in prison, as well as a fine of up to 10 000 leva (about 5112 euro).
The man is described as a cybersecurity expert tasked with testing and auditing IT systems. He was arrested on July 16 at his place of employment, but prosecutors said that his actions had no relation to his employer’s activity.

“At this stage we cannot be absolutely sure because the investigation is still at an early stage and there is a lot of work to be done to get the full picture. We are investigating all possible avenues,” he was quoted as saying.
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Euronews: Bulgaria’s ‘biggest leak’: Suspect arrested after cyber attack

Minimalist · Jul 18, 2019

Bulgaria hacking suspect worked on government cybersecurity before tax agency breach

Prosecutors described the suspect only as “KB,” though Bulgarian media quickly identified him only as Christian Boykov, or Kristian Boykov, a computer specialist from the city of Plovdiv. The Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office described the hacking suspect as a “cyber security expert” who is “involved in testing and auditing information systems,” according to a translation of their announcement. Boykov has been conducting cybersecurity training for the GDOC, a Bulgarian government agency, his lawyers told MediaPool.ng.
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https://www.cyberscoop.com/bulgaria...d-government-cybersecurity-tax-agency-breach/

mood · Jul 18, 2019

Bulgaria's hacked database is now available on hacking forums
Half of the database, to be exact, the half the hacker released to local reporters over the last weekend
July 18, 2019
https://www.zdnet.com/article/bulgarias-hacked-database-is-now-available-on-hacking-forums/

The database of Bulgaria's National Revenue Agency (NRA), which was hacked over the weekend and sent to local reporters, is now being shared on hacking forums, ZDNet has learned from sources in the threat intelligence community.
Download links to the hacked database have been shared by a hacked data trader known as Instakilla, believed to be operating out of Bulgaria.

The database contains 57 folders, 10.7 GB in size, and holds personal and financial information consistent with what Bulgarian newspapers reported receiving over the weekend.
This threat actor has been known to share hacked data for years. He previously advertised data belonging to gaming forums and thousands of selfies of Bulgarian citizens holding up their IDs for some sort of authentication procedure.
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mood · Jul 22, 2019

mood said: ↑

Person arrested after tax agency data leak, Bulgarian prosecutors say
July 17, 2019
https://sofiaglobe.com/2019/07/17/p...x-agency-data-leak-bulgarian-prosecutors-say/
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Man Accused Of Hacking Bulgaria's Tax Agency Is Released And Given Lesser Charges
July 21, 2019
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/21/7439...ased-and-given-lesser-charges?t=1563788256106

A cybersecurity expert accused of hacking the data of more than 5 million Bulgarian taxpayers was released by police Wednesday after his charges were downgraded.
Kristian Boykov [...] The hacker was found by police through the computer and software used in the attack, according to the Sofia prosecutor's office.

Boykov was initially charged with a computer crime against critical infrastructure, with a maximum sentence of eight years in jail. Those charges were dropped and he was given a lesser charge of crime against information systems, which has a maximum jail sentence of three years.
Police are still in the early stages of the investigation. If Boykov was in fact involved, it is unknown whether he worked alone or as part of a larger group, but police are looking at outside involvement as a possibility.
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mood · Jul 24, 2019

Police raid cybersecurity firm over Bulgaria's biggest data breach
July 24, 2019
https://news.yahoo.com/police-raid-cybersecurity-firm-over-094455429.html

Police investigating Bulgaria's biggest-ever data breach have detained a manager of a cybersecurity company, raided its offices and seized computers, they said on Wednesday.
The company, Tad Group, has become a focus of the investigation.

Boykov, 20, has denied wrongdoing. He has been released from custody but banned from leaving the country.
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mood · Aug 1, 2019

Bulgarian authorities release CCTV evidence showing tax office hacker Kristian Boykov sending email to media
August 1, 2019
https://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/3079938/bulgaria-nra-hackers-evidence

Authorities in Bulgaria have released CCTV evidence from the offices of IT security firm TAD Group directly implicating Kristian Boykov in June's tax office hack.

Furthermore, the evidence also suggests that TAD Group was responsible for 49 business-generating cyber attacks in the country, in addition to the hack on Bulgaria's National Revenue Agency (NRA), with CCTV audio recordings capturing TAD Group staff talking about the tax office attack as well as referring to previous attacks.

The AG office has released proofs of culpability of TAD Group and Kristian Boykov in the hack of the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency.
Things don't look good for the defendant... — Vess (@VessOnSecurity) August 1, 2019
In addition to the CCTV evidence, which also carried audio, Telegram chats over TAD Group office PCs between Boykov and TAD Group founder and CEO Ivan Todorov also pointed to the company carrying out attacks against Bulgarian businesses and organisations in order to drum-up business for itself.
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mood · Aug 9, 2019

Bulgaria's data breach suspect sent back to custody
August 8, 2019
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-b...ch-suspect-sent-back-to-custody-idUKKCN1UY2D5

The owner of a Bulgarian cybersecurity company has been sent back into custody, a court said on Thursday, as part of an investigation into the nation’s biggest data breach.
Last week, he was detained by border police at Sofia airport but was later released on bail of 100,000 levs (£47,186).

“The magistrates misinterpreted part of the evidence,” Todorov’s lawyer Ina Lulcheva said after the court’s ruling. “Besides, they were obviously eager to appease the public.”
The attack has reignited a long-running debate about lax cybersecurity standards in Bulgaria.
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mood · Aug 15, 2019

Russia Suspected by Some in Giant Bulgaria Hack
August 14, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/world/europe/bulgaria-hack-russia.html

In the immediate aftermath of the breach, Bulgaria’s interior minister, Mladen Marinov, raised the prospect that Russia might have had a hand in the attack, given the timing.
Several American officials who follow Russia closely say the hacking bears the hallmark of an operation by Russia’s military intelligence service, the G.R.U., to include a financial and political influence campaign targeting key decision makers within Bulgaria’s government. But United States spy agencies have not yet conclusively determined who carried out the attack.

Bozhidar Bozhanov, who worked as an adviser to the Bulgarian government on cybersecurity from 2015 to 2016, said that what was most frightening about the breach was how easy it was to pull off.

“The claim of the prime minister that this was some kind of wizard is ridiculous,” he said. “This could be done by any script kiddie,” he said, using a term for an unsophisticated hacker relying on widely available software.
He said that he did not believe Russia was involved, but that if a “script kiddie could do this,” one could only imagine what could be done with the backing of Russia’s intelligence services.
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mood · Aug 27, 2019

Bulgaria's Attorney General releases more evidence from tax office hack investigation
Email supposedly from a Russian hacker found on PC of accused, Kristian Boykov
August 27, 2019
https://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/new...e-evidence-from-tax-office-hack-investigation

Bulgaria's Attorney General has released more evidence from the investigation into June's attack on the country's tax office, the National Revenue Agency (NRA).

Investigators claim to have found the text of the email from the supposed "Russian hacker" sent to media outlets following the NRA data spillage on the PC of Kristian Boykov, the TAD Group security investigator accused of being behind the attack.
Earlier, investigators had claimed that TAD Group's business model involved conducting cyber attacks on organisations, before supposedly riding to their rescue with security services.

"Witness acounts from directors of companies that were hacked by TAD Group. They have confirmed that the information found on TAD Group's computers belongs to their companies and shouldn't have been found elsewhere," wrote Vladimirov in a Twitter thread over the bank holiday weekend.
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mood · Aug 31, 2019

OECD Reviewing Bulgarian Tax Data Breach
August 30, 2019
https://www.law360.com/articles/1194492/oecd-reviewing-bulgarian-tax-data-breach

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is reviewing the Bulgarian tax authority's security measures following a massive data breach that included taxpayer information exchanged with other countries through a global reporting system, the organization confirmed Friday.

The July 15 breach, which according to news reports affected seven million Bulgarian taxpayers, is the first to involve the common reporting standard, a global initiative spearheaded by the OECD to exchange data about taxpayers in the hope of stemming illegal tax evasion.
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OECD: Statement on the data breach in the National Revenue Agency of Bulgaria

mood · Sep 1, 2019

Bulgaria's tax agency fined $3 million over data breach, will appeal
August 29, 2019
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...on-over-data-breach-will-appeal-idUSKCN1VJ0YY

Bulgaria’s tax agency will appeal a fine of 5.1 million levs ($2.9 million) imposed by the state data-protection agency for the country’s biggest-ever data breach, the tax agency said on Thursday.
The tax agency is also considering legal action against the hackers who penetrated its systems in June, so that they would have to pay for the fine.

The fine is below the maximum of 20 million euros. The head of the Commission for Personal Data Protection, Ventisalav Karadzhov, said it was not meant to punish, but to ensure that measures are taken to prevent future data breaches.
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mood · Oct 8, 2019

Switzerland stops information exchange with Bulgaria
Following data leak of Bulgarian and foreign taxpayers’ financial account details
October 8, 2019
https://international-adviser.com/switzerland-stops-information-exchange-with-bulgaria/

The Swiss Federal Council has halted its automatic exchange of information (AEOI) agreement with Bulgaria.
The move follows a problem with data security in the Eastern European country in July 2019, when a leak exposed financial account information of four million Bulgarians and foreign taxpayers.

Although the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency was hacked, the Swiss databases were not affected.
Fix and resume
The agreement will be resumed once Bulgaria solves its data security issue and takes corrective measure that will have to be validated by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes.
To date, Switzerland has sent information on 3.1 million financial accounts to its partner states, and has received data on around 2.4 million of them.
Click to expand...

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