Microsoft Takes Action To Stop Sales Of Fake Accounts

Uploaded on 2023-12-19 in FREE TO VIEW, BUSINESS-Services-Law, BUSINESS-Services-IT & Telecoms

Microsoft has recently taken action to shut down a prolific Vietnam-based criminal group it describes as the number one seller and creator of fake accounts. Storm-1152 runs illicit websites and social media pages that sell hacking tools including those aimed at identity verification software.

Microsoft announced it has obtained a court order from the Federal court for the Southern District of New York to seize infrastructure set up by Storm-1152.

This criminal group worked on roughly 750 million fraudulent Microsoft accounts and tools through a network of bogus websites and social media pages to other criminal actors, netting the operators $millions in illicit revenue.

Now, Microsoft has taken down websites and other online assets used by the Storm-1152 cyber crime group, which the company said is the “number one seller and creator of fraudulent Microsoft accounts.”

“Storm-1152 runs illicit websites and social media pages, selling fraudulent Microsoft accounts and tools to bypass identity verification software across well-known technology platforms... These services reduce the time and effort needed for criminals to conduct a host of criminal and abusive behaviors online,” Microsoft said.

“With companies able to quickly identify and shut down fraudulent accounts, criminals require a greater quantity of accounts to circumvent mitigation efforts... Instead of spending time trying to create thousands of fraudulent accounts, cyber criminals can simply purchase them from Storm-1152 and other groups,” Microsoft said.

"Fraudulent online accounts act as the gateway to a host of cybercrime, including mass phishing, identity theft and fraud, and distributed DDoS attacks," , said Amy Hogan-Burney,Microsoft's associate general counsel for cyber security policy & protection.

Such cybercrime-as-a-service (CaaS) offerings are designed to circumvent identity verification software across various technology platforms and help minimise the efforts needed to conduct malicious activities online, including phishing, spamming, ransomware, and fraud, effectively lowering the barriers to entry for attackers.

Microsoft collaborated with Arkose Labs on the initiative, which enabled them to identify three individuals based in Vietnam who were instrumental in developing and maintaining the infrastructure

Microsoft: ArkoseLabs: ArkoseLabs: Hacker News: Security Week: Infosecurity Magazine: MeriTalk:

Image: Unsplash

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